Friday Harbor researchers look to sea star transfers

A current “very big breakthrough” into the reason for losing illness has opened potentialities  for restoring habitat, bringing sunflower stars again from near-extinction.

Researchers from the Hakai Institute and University of British Columbia, in collaboration with University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories and others, have found the causative agent for sea star losing illness that worn out practically all sunflower sea stars from Mexico to Alaska and affected greater than 20 different species.

Sunflower stars as soon as thrived right here, with estimates reporting one star each 10 sq. meters throughout the complete Salish Sea. From 2013–2015, a mysterious pandemic generally known as sea star losing illness eradicated practically a billion of them within the sea alone and virtually 5 billion alongside the West Coast. Now, divers are fortunate to see one. 

According to the study, the first explanation for sea star losing illness is a bacterium known as Vibrio pectenicida. 

“It’s a very big breakthrough,” stated Jason Hodin, co-author and senior analysis scientist at Friday Harbor Labs. “In a lot of ways, we’ve been wandering around blind. (Now we) know what ultimately was the elephant in the room, which was this disease that still is present in the wild and still it is periodically resulting in disease outbreaks and that we also see as occasional disease outbreaks in our lab.” 

The fast decimation of such a prolific predator resulted in a trophic cascade — a ripple impact by the meals chain — alongside the West Coast. Sea urchins — which destroy kelp forests and may stay for lots of of years — have now overtaken the west aspect of San Juan Island, stated Willem Weertman, a researcher at Friday Harbor Labs. Before the pandemic, the ocean stars stored them in examine. 

“The top predator is on the verge of extinction, and we need to figure out how to reverse that if possible,” Hodin stated. 

The lack of stars has led to the destruction of near-shore habitats like kelp forests and eel grass. 

“When you lose a foundational habitat, you lose the entire biodiversity in the entire food web, and we think that sunflower stars are an important nexus for this,” Hodin stated. “There’s some pretty strong data that suggests that restoring sunflower star populations can reset the balance.” 

In 2019, Hodin began the captive breeding program at Friday Harbor with funding from the Nature Conservancy. These stars grew to become a few of the take a look at topics for lead writer Melanie Prentice’s work on the Hakai Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

The analysis

From 2021 to 2024, researchers carried out seven managed publicity experiments on healthy-appearing sunflower sea stars.

In the primary experiments, they unfold sea star losing illness by injecting wholesome sunflower sea stars with a blended tissue combination made out of diseased stars. When the combination handed by a filter, it not brought on illness — suggesting the trigger was seemingly bigger than a virus.

For three weeks, researchers famous that uncovered stars twisted their arms extra steadily and severely, an early signal of the illness. They extracted RNA from samples and sequenced it to see which genes had been actively being utilized by the micro organism on the time.

After researchers suspected that Vibrio pectenicida would possibly trigger the illness, they collected fluid from the physique cavity of two sick, captive-bred sunflower sea stars exhibiting early indicators. This fluid was sampled with a syringe and processed within the lab. Both the sampled stars misplaced arms and died inside days.

Researchers then sequenced the genome of the Vibrio pectenicida pressure FHCF-3 utilizing a mix of two superior applied sciences: Illumina sequencing, which produces correct however brief DNA reads, and Oxford Nanopore sequencing, which generates longer DNA reads with the next error price. It took each strategies to get an entire and correct sequence.

Eyes on the celebrities

The discovery has a variety of implications for the way forward for sea star analysis in Friday Harbor, the Salish Sea and the West Coast as an entire, Hodin stated. 

Researchers at the moment are near with the ability to take a look at the water to know if there may be illness presence within the ecosystem. One of Friday Harbor Lab’s objectives is to switch its stars to locations that want them. It’s essential to have the ability to know if these stars are wholesome earlier than doing so. 

“For our program, it’s going to really open up a lot of possibilities that and make things a lot easier than they have been up until now,” he stated. 

Friday Harbor Labs has secured funding for the primary 12 months of an out-planting effort introducing wholesome sea stars to urchin barrens. Currently, researchers are awaiting ultimate approval from the Department of Fish and Wildlife earlier than conducting transfers. 

The Hakai Institute will examine if stars have variation inside pure populations to battle off the illness, questioning what pure components decide if a star turns into sick. Crossbreeding the celebrities might generate resistance to it, Hodin stated. 

Hodin anticipates a continued collaboration between the labs to “marry captive breeding to disease exposure.” 

“Our chocolate and their peanut butter are perfect matches for this,” he stated. 

Lots has modified within the area since Hodin started this work six years in the past, he stated. 

“Things were looking pretty dire for the sunflower star,” he stated. “There was almost nobody on it. Populations were incredibly low. We were starting to see this massive effect on kelp. There wasn’t really a lot of hope.” 

Interest within the work each within the public and the sphere has elevated quickly, he stated. The Hakai Institute grew to become concerned, and briefly order got here area analysis in Alaska and breeding applications in Oregon and California. 

“It really feels like there’s a groundswell,” he stated. “It’s what’s needed in order to be able to address it, so I’m feeling pretty hopeful. It’s an incredibly collaborative group of people that are really focused on the ecological problem primarily, and that’s really heartening.”

— By Sam Fletcher 

Also learn in Salish Current:

• “Friday Harbor scientists research eelgrass ‘superpowers’,” Aug. 5, 2025
• “Fight continues against sea star wasting disease,” July 28, 2025
• “Devastating wasting illness of influential, iconic sea stars still a mystery,” Oct. 21, 2025
• “Samish Nation protects ‘breathtaking’ kelp forests, nearshore habitat,” Nov. 14, 2023
• “Can kelp farming help save our marine environment?” Oct. 7, 2022

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