In this unit:
What happens when a species is removed from the ecosystem? Join researchers in a lab where they are growing endangered Sunflower sea stars! The Sunflower sea star is special for many reasons- they can grow up to 24 arms (!!!) and they are one of the fastest and largest sea stars in the world. While these are the cool, fun, facts about them, more importantly they are special because SO much in the ecosystem depends on them. They are connected to everything. In 2012 the sea star wasting disease was detected for the first time in the Salish Sea and took out almost 90% of the population. This video provides a 360 tour of a lab at the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories where Jason Hodin and his team of scientists are working to grow Sunflower stars and re-populate the population here in the Salish Sea.
