EUREKA, Calif. — In 2015, what marine biologists refer to as a “heat blob” made up of warmer ocean temperatures made its way to marine habitats off the coast of Northern California. These higher temperatures ended up being fatal to the sea star population, particularly the sunflower sea stars that used to be very common here in Humboldt County.
“I have been here for five years and I’ve only seen one,” Marine Naturalist at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Marine Lab Z Zenobia said. “I’ve only seen one sunflower star, where they used to be literally the most common ones that were here. If you were to go down to the tide pools, you would have seen hundreds.”…
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