AILSA CHANG, HOST:
One of the most endangered creatures of the Pacific Ocean is getting a boost. It's a 20-armed predator, a sea star called the sunflower star. Researchers are working to bring it back from the brink of extinction. KUOW's John Ryan reports from Washington's San Juan Islands.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT MOTOR HUMMING)
JOHN RYAN, BYLINE: I am bouncing my way across Rosario Strait in a small boat in pretty rough seas, and we are on our way to pick up a precious cargo, 20 endangered sunflower stars raised by hand in a lab.
Sunflower stars are apex predators of the sea floor. They can get three feet wide. Over the past decade, a vast underwater pandemic killed billions of sea stars up and down the West Coast, dissolving them into goo. Researchers say ocean heat waves, fueled by climate change, helped the pandemic spread.
JASON HODIN: We've lost 90% of our sunflower stars, we think.
RYAN: Jason Hodin runs the University of Washington lab that's been raising sunflower stars.
HODIN: This was a really, really big outbreak, spread from northern Mexico all the way to Alaska, affecting dozens and dozens of sea star species.
RYAN: No species was harder hit than the sunflower star. Without sunflower stars, many underwater kelp forests on the West Coast have been stripped bare by sea urchins.
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RYAN: Sea stars eat urchins, and where the predators have disappeared, urchins have been mowing down these kelp forests.
TOM WOOTEN: That's why those starfish are so important, 'cause they munch those green urchins.
RYAN: Samish Nation tribal chair Tom Wooten is sitting by the shore in the tribe's traditional territory. A 20-foot cedar pole looms above him. It's carved into a female figure named...
WOOTEN: Ko-Kwal-Alwoot.
RYAN: In Samish legend, Ko-Kwal-Alwoot married the king of the sea and became an immortal sea creature.
WOOTEN: If you look into the water, you'll see the bull kelp swirling around in the tide. That's her hair, letting us know that she's still there.
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WOOTEN: She's the protector of our people. She ensures that waters are clean and the fish are there and the crab, all the things that we rely on.
RYAN: That belief mirrors the science. Kelp forests protect coastlines from erosion and support species from salmon to orcas. Samish efforts to protect kelp are part of the tribe's push to make a home for itself. This tribe never got a reservation.
WOOTEN: We were scattered to the winds, and we're in an effort to bring people back home.
RYAN: So the tribe has been buying land, developing housing and restoring habitats on land and at sea.
WOOTEN: It's really nature that we live in. We have to do what we can to preserve, protect and restore that to have a place to come home to.
(SOUNDBITE OF EQUIPMENT CLANGING)
RYAN: On the research boat in the San Juan Islands, the Samish dive team is getting ready.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Pool's open?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Pool's open.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
RYAN: Underwater, the divers lower four plastic tubs to the sea floor, then wait for the stars to glide to freedom.
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RYAN: Diver and project manager Sam Strauss says the stars seemed eager to be back where they belong.
SAM STRAUSS: They left their bins incredibly quickly and started exploring the environment and finding different kelp fronds to hide under.
RYAN: Strauss climbs aboard and gives his fellow researcher a dripping-wet bear hug.
STRAUSS: Sorry to do it to you, Jason.
(LAUGHTER)
RYAN: Then Strauss brings out a small speaker.
STRAUSS: Jason, this one's for you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVID BOWIE: (Singing) There's a starman waiting in the sky.
RYAN: A dozen labs on the West Coast are now raising these stars. Replacing the 5 billion sunflower stars lost to disease is a very tall order, but researchers hope to raise enough to point to species and kelp forest toward recovery.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RYAN: For NPR News, I'm John Ryan in the San Juan Islands. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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