Tide Talks: Sea Star Recovery

Join Melissa Miner for a look at how ochre sea stars have been affected by sea star disease over the years—are they making a comeback? We'll explore what’s happening along the West Coast and in our own local waters. After the talk, there will be time for questions, plus a short training on how you can help monitor sea stars using the resources at seastarwasting.org.

Melissa Miner is a researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz, but works remotely from Bellingham. For over 30 years, she has helped to monitor rocky intertidal communities from Alaska to Mexico as part of MARINe (Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network, pacificrockyintertidal.org). 

Beginning in 2013, MARINe documented west coast-wide declines in ochre star populations due to a disease called “sea star wasting” (SSW). Melissa began working with community science groups in 2014 to expand sea star monitoring efforts, which has contributed to a better understanding of the long-term impacts of SSW