Reuven Bank is an interdisciplinary marine conservation professional.  He works as an interpretive diving ranger for the National Park Service (what a job!) and is the current Board Chair for Sunflower Star Laboratory, a California-based conservation aquaculture nonprofit dedicated to restoring the critically endangered sunflower star and building kelp forest resilience with coastal communities. Reuven is also Digital Media Manager for the Western Flyer Foundation (the Western Flyer is the boat that carried John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed 'Doc' Ricketts on their 1940 voyage to Baja immortalized in their Log from the Sea of Cortez).

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Sunflower stars are charismatic, vibrant megafauna, who serve a crucial role in kelp forest ecosystems. Boasting up to 24 arms and weighting as much as a small dog (!), they're capable of sprinting up to a meter a minute on their 15,000 tube feet. Their favorite food? The purple sea urchin, whose overpopulation is decimating kelp forests along our coast. The presence alone of sunflower stars can cause urchins to avoid an area of kelp. But in 2013, the sunflower star population from Alaska to Baja was all but wiped out due to a wasting disease and warmer waters, leading to a huge increase in urchins. The Sunflower Star Laboratory's mission is to develop aquaculture methods to bring back the sunflower star and restore balance in the kelp forest.

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Reuven will update us on how the stars are doing in the lab. Come and get to know your new favorite echinoderms!