Aquarium Debuts Stars of the Sea Experience & Living Coastline Touchpool Exhibit

Discover the diversity of sea stars as you meet over 20 species, experience a new short film and learn about the Aquarium’s conservation efforts to prevent them from disappearing forever.

The Aquarium of the Pacific is celebrating the delicate beauty and superhero powers of over twenty species of sea stars from around the globe in a new experience this summer. Stars of the Sea opened on May 24 and continue through April 30, 2026. Guests will be able to meet sea stars like the venomous crown-of-thorns and spider-like brittle stars and learn about how the nonprofit Aquarium of the Pacific is working to save the largest sea star of them all: the critically endangered sunflower sea star.

Guests will also be able to visit a reimagined section of the Aquarium’s California Terrace that focuses on coastal habitats, featuring the new immersive outdoor touchpool experience, Our Living Coastline. This new exhibit includes a life-like rock structure, multiple viewing windows and surging cascades of water, designed to mimic a real tidepool on a rocky shore. Visitors of all ages will be able to learn about and touch different sea star species, including bat and ochre sea stars, along with sea urchins and sea anemones from California’s northern and southern coastal regions.

Sea stars can be found in over twenty exhibits at the Aquarium, representing habitats from coastal tidepools stretching from Mexico to Alaska, coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific, the deep seas of Japan and the Galapagos Islands and beyond. In addition, guests can discover the diversity of sea stars in a new film that will play throughout the day in the Aquarium’s Great Hall. As guests explore Stars of the Sea, they can learn about the stories behind each sea star species and the Aquarium’s groundbreaking research and breeding programs, including raising baby sunflower sea stars, offering hope for the species’ recovery.

These colorful creatures are one of the oldest marine invertebrates and have ancient roots in our World Ocean, dating back 450 million years. The five-armed structure of a sea star we commonly think of today is a remnant of their early lineage, but some modern sea stars can have up to twenty-six arms, like the sunflower sea star. They’ve evolved into over 2,000 species, but some remain under threat and may disappear forever.

Environmental stressors in the ocean as a result of climate change, like warming temperatures, pollution and changes in its chemistry, threaten the lives of sea stars. These stressors affect the immune systems of over twenty sea star species, making them susceptible to their primary threat: diseases like sea star wasting syndrome. Many sea star populations have not been able to bounce back to their former numbers because of these threats, but scientists and other experts are working together to find ways to help.

“Through our work raising sunflower sea stars and collaborations with partners on spawning and future outplanting efforts, we’re hoping for brighter times ahead for this keystone species. Not only do these stars protect our kelp forests, but in turn our coastlines are protected as well,” said Nate Jaros, vice president of animal care, fish and invertebrates

These multi-armed invertebrates are pros at regulating their respective ecosystems. In tidepool habitats, ochre sea stars eat mussels, creating space for other species to live. The sunflower sea star has a starring role in their kelp forest homes where they control the urchin population. Without this management, urchins can overpopulate and graze kelp forests away.

The population for this kelp forest guardian plummeted due to sea star wasting syndrome, leading to sunflower stars becoming functionally extinct along the coast of California in 2013. The Aquarium of the Pacific is part of ongoing conservation efforts with the goal of rebuilding the number of sunflower sea stars in California. This includes the Aquarium of the Pacific’s role as one of the founding partners of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) SAFE sunflower sea star program. The Aquarium is also focused on sunflower sea star conservation through its role as a founding member of the Pacific Coast Ocean Restoration Initiative (PCOR), a comprehensive, collaborative statewide effort aimed at restoring and recovering degraded marine ecosystems across California such as kelp forest ecosystems.