‘Immense Mystery’ As Sea Stars Being Wiped Out Along West Coast, Could Be Gone For Generations

There is no mystery to this; next to go will be the abalone, crab and urchin populations; bewildering disease is spreading and “no idea what’s causing it, or how to stop it” — Timelapse shows all legs lost in 7 hours (VIDEOS)

ENERGY NEWS
11/17/2013

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Nov. 16, 2013: [...] 

The stars lose their legs and, essentially, disintegrate into blobs. Researchers have no idea what’s causing it, or how to stop it. The disease, whatever it is, has wiped out sea stars from the local shoreline, with even the pools at Natural Bridges State Beach now empty of stars. Similar die-offs have occurred before, but never this widespread and always during warm-water cycles [...]

Pacific Starfish, Half Moon Bay California

It is afflicting sea stars from Southern California to Alaska, and [...] the Pacific Ocean being in a cold-water cycle. “Those are two very bewildering facts,” said Pete Raimondi, who heads UC Santa Cruz’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology lab. “[...] what we really don’t understand is how [they get infected],” Raimondi said. [...] the disease [...] is now showing up in subtidal zones. [...]

Watch the Sentinel reporter’s video here

CBS News, Nov. 12, 2013:  

Legacy of Fukushima:  Another dead ocean

What’s wiping out the starfish in California? [...] Scientists on the West Coast are at a loss to explain what’s killing sea stars, also known as starfish. In some places, 95 percent of the starfish population has died. Marine biologist Pete Raimondi showed CBS News the tide pools along California’s Monterey Bay. Thousands of bright sea stars usually line these shores. In less than two months, they’ve vanished. Raimondi said the mystery of what is happening to the sea stars is “immense.” “I mean, that’s probably, from a scientific point of view, one of the most intriguing things,” he said. “We have no obvious culprit.” [...] The disease is more widespread than ever, stretching from Alaska to Southern California. [...] “We’ve never seen it like this, never,” Raimondi said. [...] Scientists say they don’t know how much worse the die off will get, and that it could be generations before these shores are once again painted purple and orange.

Watch the CBS Evening News report here (timelapse footage starts at 1:00 in)

 Related Posts

1. Seattle TV: “Warning, video of the (melting) sea stars might be disturbing” — Scientists are “so concerned” about rapidly spreading die off on West Coast — Doubled in just a few days — Jellyfish numbers booming November 2, 2013
2. NBC News: “Grisly disease decimating starfish populations… from Orange County to Alaska” — Scientists: Alarm as they began eating each other, then melting away — Similar problem on East Coast observed since 2011 — Now spreading at “scary” rate (VIDEO) November 2, 2013
3. Scientists “Especially Worried”: “We don’t know how the pathogen is doing this” — Sea star broke in half, walked away, then turned to goo — ‘Environmental factors’ to blame? — Hundreds wash up dead in Seattle (VIDEO) November 12, 2013
4. PHOTOS: Sea star began “ripping itself into pieces” — Like a horror movie — AP: Deaths from Alaska to S. California — Biologist: Related to an environmental change? “An early warning that we aren’t picking up on?” — Professor: “None of us had ever seen anything like this before” November 4, 2013
5. Mystery: Starfish turn to ‘slime’ along Pacific coast — “We’re talking about a loss of millions and millions” — Compared to medieval ‘Black Death’ — Innards become exposed and fall apart — Cases ballooning in Alaska (VIDEO) November 7, 2013

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