Scientific name: Pycnopodia helianthoides
Taxonomy: Kingdom Animalia → Phylum Echinodermata → Subphylum Asterozoa → Class Asteroidea → Subclass Ambuloasteroidea → Infraclass Neoasteroidea → Superorder Forcipulatacea → Order Forcipulatida → Family Asteriidae → Subfamily Pycnopodiinae → Genus Pycnopodia
Locations: Eastern Pacific
Group: Marine Life → Invertebrates → Sea Stars
These vary in color from orange to purple to white. They can get enormous - up to three feet across. In 2013, a wasting disease killed all the big ones. From fall through winter, all I saw were little ones, and now it's rare to see even those. I'm hoping they'll come back soon; we desperately need them to eat the population boom of purple sea urchins that has been eating all the kelp in their absence.