Set to a soundtrack of humming water pumps and bubbling sea water, Dr. Sarah Gravem’s research comes alive. But it’s not the high-tech science lab you might imagine. In the basement of the Sitka Sound Science Center, a collection of plastic tubs and barrels serve as control tanks, and researchers collect data by hand every few hours.

It’s within these unassuming tubs that our main character, the sea star, sheds light on the world of underwater forests.