New eDNA tool to help track recovery of sunflower sea star, a Pacific Coast ‘apex predator’

New eDNA tool to help track recovery of sunflower sea star, a Pacific Coast ‘apex predator’ Michael Peñuelas, a Seattle scuba diver, examines a large sunflower sea star in the Edmonds Marine Park in Puget Sound, Washington, in 2021. (Image credit: Courtesy of Zachary Gold) June 25, 2026 A wasting disease that surged during the intense 2013-2016 Pacific marine heatwave known as the Blob decimated numerous species of sea stars and triggered the collapse of vast coastal kelp forests from the Aleutians to the Baja Peninsula. One of the species most affected was the sunflower sea star , an apex pre