Divers clutch wooden spears as they hunt hordes of hungry starfish destroying the coral reefs around the Cook Islands already weakened by climate change.

In the name of survival, starfish sever their own body parts to escape predators. They will also eventually regenerate those lost limbs, but how this biological process works has remained a mystery.

The next time you are walking along the seashore, take a closer look at the wave-battered coast. The beauty of this extremely brutal ecosystem is enhanced many fold by a growing understanding of how ...

A similar recovery has not been observed among sunflower sea stars, which are linked to the vanishing of Oregon's underwater ...

This article is from Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef can’t catch ...