sea stars

4 Stories

Warmer Ocean Spells Doom for Starfish
Scientists Find Culprit
in Starfish Devastation
new study

Scientists Find Culprit in Starfish Devastation

Warmer ocean helps deadly pathogen flourish, study suggests

(Newser) - "This thing was as common as a robin," Cornell's Drew Harvell tells the Atlantic of the sunflower sea star. No more. The creature that once thrived off the West Coast was decimated along with other starfish species by a disease that surfaced with a vengeance around 2013....

They Were Dying by the Millions. Now, a Creature Comeback

Starfish are popping up again on the West Coast

(Newser) - Starfish are making a comeback on the West Coast, four years after a mysterious syndrome killed millions of them. From 2013 to 2014, Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit sea stars from British Columbia to Mexico. The starfish would develop lesions, then disintegrate, their arms turning into blobs of goo. The...

Scientists Solve the Mystery of 'Melting' Starfish

A virus is likely responsible, they say

(Newser) - Scientists think they finally know what causes sea star wasting syndrome, the disease that's killing off starfish in massive numbers. In a new study , researchers from a number of universities have linked the devastating disease—which causes starfish to rip off their own arms and dissolve into piles of...

Sea Star 'Goo' Problem Getting Worse

Oregon had seemed to be unscathed by the disease. No more

(Newser) - A mysterious disease that has been claiming the lives of sea stars up and down the US, Canadian, and Mexican coasts since last summer has now wiped out as much as 60% of the populations of purple ochre sea stars being watched in Oregon—populations that as of April had...

4 Stories