Interesting article. Who knew there were scientists that kept track of sea star populations?
www.cbsnews.com
Scientists say they have at last solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars — often known as starfish — off the Pacific coast of North America in a decade-long epidemic.
Starting in 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has devastated more than 20 species and continues today. Worst hit was a species called the sunflower sea star, which lost around 90% of its population in the outbreak's first five years.
"It's really quite gruesome," said marine disease ecologist Alyssa Gehman at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, who helped pinpoint the cause.
Healthy sea stars have "puffy arms sticking straight out," she said. But the wasting disease causes them to grow lesions and "then their arms actually fall off."
The culprit? Bacteria that has also infected shellfish, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
............
Such recovery work is not only important for sea stars, but for entire Pacific ecosystems because healthy starfish gobble up excess sea urchins, researchers say.
Sunflower sea stars "look sort of innocent when you see them, but they eat almost everything that lives on the bottom of the ocean," said Gehman. "They're voracious eaters."
With many fewer sea stars, the sea urchins that they usually munch on exploded in population — and in turn gobbled up around 95% of the kelp forest s in Northern California within a decade. These kelp forests provide food and habitat for a wide variety of animals including fish, sea otters and seals.
Billions of starfish have died in a decade-long epidemic. Scientists say they now know why.
A sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska, devastating more than 20 species and continuing today.
www.cbsnews.com
Scientists say they have at last solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars — often known as starfish — off the Pacific coast of North America in a decade-long epidemic.
Starting in 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has devastated more than 20 species and continues today. Worst hit was a species called the sunflower sea star, which lost around 90% of its population in the outbreak's first five years.
"It's really quite gruesome," said marine disease ecologist Alyssa Gehman at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, who helped pinpoint the cause.
Healthy sea stars have "puffy arms sticking straight out," she said. But the wasting disease causes them to grow lesions and "then their arms actually fall off."
The culprit? Bacteria that has also infected shellfish, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
............
Such recovery work is not only important for sea stars, but for entire Pacific ecosystems because healthy starfish gobble up excess sea urchins, researchers say.
Sunflower sea stars "look sort of innocent when you see them, but they eat almost everything that lives on the bottom of the ocean," said Gehman. "They're voracious eaters."
With many fewer sea stars, the sea urchins that they usually munch on exploded in population — and in turn gobbled up around 95% of the kelp forest s in Northern California within a decade. These kelp forests provide food and habitat for a wide variety of animals including fish, sea otters and seals.
