“
After a decade of urchins devastating kelp forests, researchers are finally fighting back — and bringing the literal hammer down.
…
All totaled, divers destroyed more than 260,000 urchins.

The results shocked even the scientists.

… sea star wasting disease … killed billions of sunflower sea stars worldwide, a major urchin predator.
”
#Kelp #SeaStars #Urchins #PurpleUrchins
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/local/2025/11/02/new-strategies-may-help-oregons-struggling-kelp-forests-bounce-back/86818900007

Raising Hungry #SeaStar Babies Is No Cinch https://baynature.org/article/raising-hungry-sea-star-babies-is-no-cinch/

"Not so long ago, you could count on #pycnopodia to devour #PurpleUrchins and keep them from eating too much #kelp. A decade ago, the mysterious wasting disease began plaguing #SeaStars, right around the time that a #MarineHeatWave struck... In the absence of their primary predator, urchin populations exploded. Since then they have mown across the sea floor unhindered, leaving urchin barrens where #KelpForests once flourished."