The Brief

Over the past decade, more than 90% of sunflower sea stars have disappeared from the West Coast of North America. It’s gotten so bad that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has recommended that they be listed as threatened because the species appears to be on the path toward extinction.

One of the largest sea stars in the world, sunflower sea stars can grow to be 3 feet across. They once were ubiquitous off our coast, crawling through seagrass meadows and kelp forests, munching on purple sea urchins, helping to keep their populations in check. Since their disappearance, urchins have proliferated and kelp forests have suffered, leaving our coastlines more vulnerable to erosion.

Melissa Torres from Birch Aquarium and Riah Evin from California Academy of Sciences administer a spawn-inducing hormone to a female sunflower sea star.

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Birch Aquarium at Scripps

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Addressing the crisis

In response to the crisis, a team of scientists from aquariums across California have gotten together to try and figure out how to get the sea stars to reproduce in captivity. And after more than a year of experiments, they’ve finally been able to at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

“In the past, like, five years we've realized we need to be taking care of this and actually trying to restore those populations,” said Jenifer Burney, senior aquarist Aquarium of the Pacific and one of the co-leads of the SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) Sea Star Program, part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Sunflower sea star larvae.

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Aquarium of the Pacific

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Now, they have buckets full of fertilized eggs. Tons of tiny floating planktonic larvae, which (if everything goes well) will turn into sunflower sea stars over the next few weeks. They’ll then take two years to reach reproductive age.

A lot more research needs to be done until they’re released into the wild, but this is a step toward helping populations bounce back as it’s unclear if they’ll be able to do so on their own.

Scientists from Birch Aquarium and Aquarium of the Pacific administer a hormone that induces the male sea star to release sperm.

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Birch Aquarium at Scripps

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How things got so bad

In 2013, sea stars began dissolving en masse.

Sea star wasting syndrome was the culprit. A previously known disease, it seemed to mostly take out sick animals. But then it began to destroy healthy ones too.

It starts off as white lesions and progresses to the point where the sea star’s appendages break off, and their entire bodies eventually turn to goo.

It’s not exactly clear why the outbreak of wasting disease occurred, however, it could be linked to marine heat waves in the Eastern Pacific, which are anticipated to worsen as climate change continues to progress.

How scientists got sea stars to reproduce

Sea stars are finicky reproducers, so a big part of getting them to release their sperm and gametes into buckets of water is to make sure they’re healthy and comfortable. Because, much like us, stress is the enemy of a good time.

Before they go to spawn, they munch on mussels, clams, oysters, crabs and shrimp (which seems to be their favorite), according to Burney.

The team inducing a sea star to spawn.

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Birch Aquarium at Scripps

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The water needed to be between 40 and 58 degrees and constantly flowing over their bodies.

When ready, each sea star was injected with the hormone M1A, which gets them to release the goods.

After a previously failed attempt in November at Aquarium of the Pacific, scientists gave it another go with different sea stars at Birch on Valentine’s Day, using a successful spawn by scientists up in Washington as inspiration.

After 2½ hours, the male began releasing white masses of liquidy sperm.

And after 6 hours, the female began releasing millions of her orangey-pink eggs.

“At the time when I noticed she was starting, it basically just became all of us screaming and hugging each other,” Burney said.

The group then rushed to gather as many gametes and sperm as they could over the next several hours, dropping the product into five gallon buckets of water, later checking to see if they were properly fertilized.

What happens next

The fertilized eggs currently look like floating planktonic larvae. And if everything goes well, they’ll develop into sunflower sea stars in the coming weeks. It’ll take two years before they reach reproductive age, and even once they do, they won’t immediately be rushed out into the wild. Scientists also need to solidify the reproductive process and do further research on how to mitigate the wasting disease.

Team collects eggs from a female Sunflower Star at Birch Aquarium.

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Birch Aquarium at Scripps

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In the meantime, they’ll only be able to rely on sea stars in captivity to reproduce in order to avoid spreading disease, so any additional animals helps build the reserve of stars they can pull from.

How to see them and how to help

You can visit Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, or head down to Birch Aquarium at Scripps in San Diego.

Burney also asked that people use the app iNaturalist to document any sea stars you see in the wild. They have access to the app and can use spottings to document the location and size of the remaining populations.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.