When a sixth grade class in land-locked Arkansas saw footage of beaches littered with dead starfish, they decided to start a little fundraiser. They cut out paper starfish and put them up for “adoption” for a $1 donation, eventually pooling together $400 which they sent to a marine ecology researcher. That money helped trigger an initial study into the cause of the alarming starfish decline, which actually led researchers to find out the cause of the die-off. Unfortunately though, the results of the study paint a bleak picture for the future of starfish.
How a group of sixth-graders inspired a crucial study on starfish decline
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