The research shows that sunflower sea stars on average eat about 0.68 sea urchins per day, and that they eat starved urchins associated with barrens 21% faster than they consume the well-fed urchins typical of healthy kelp forests.

I had a long spine that was fine and alway eating all the algae in my tank. then I solved the problem that was causing the algae and I noticed the urchin on my montis then white patches where it was.

The new study, funded by The Nature Conservancy and the National Science Foundation, shows that a sunflower sea star on average eats about 0.68 sea urchins per day, and that they eat starved urchins, the ones associated with barrens, 21% faster than they consume the well-fed urchins typical of healthy kelp forests.

Sunflower sea stars — recently decimated from the ocean off western Mexico, California, Oregon and Washington — are like wolves of the kelp forest, eating sea urchins that will overgraze if left unchecked, often with a scorched-earth result.

Endangered sea stars could help control urchin populations, aiding kelp forests in the Salish Sea, according to a new study at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories. Scientists say captive baby sea stars eat even more urchins than their adult counterparts.