Ochre sea star
This year’s spotlight: Ochre sea star. Jane Kim

Text by Victoria Schlesinger; images by Jane Kim.

SPOTLIGHT SPECIES: OCHRE SEA STAR

Seeing stars

In 2013, biologists began to notice that sea stars—more than 20 species of them, eventually—along North America’s Pacific coast were suffering from an illness that caused them to disintegrate. Literally, limbs fell off and creatures dissolved away. The illness, dubbed sea star wasting disease, ravaged populations, including the ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus).

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Victoria Schlesinger is the editor in chief of Bay Nature.

Jane Kim is a visual artist, a science illustrator, and the founder of Ink Dwell, an art studio dedicated to exploring the wonders of the natural world. She trained at Rhode Island School of Design and then Cal State Monterey Bay, where she received a master’s certificate in science illustration. She specializes in large-scale public installations and has produced works for Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Aquarium, the de Young Museum, and many others. Ink Dwell