Starfish make a comeback after devastating die-off

Back in 2013, a devastating wasting disease had hit the starfish population on the shores of the northern West Coast. However, baby starfish have stunned and excited researchers by making a massive comeback showing that many starfish survived the summer and winter of 2015, as reported in CS Monitor.

The study’s lead author, Bruce Menge, an Oregon State University marine biologist, was shocked at the sheer number of baby starfish turning up on the shores of California and Oregon and startled by their survival rate.

“The number of juveniles was off the charts — higher than we’d ever seen — as much as 300 times normal. It wasn’t a case of high settlement, or more sea stars being born. They just had an extraordinary survival rate into the juvenile stage.”

The original virus was a mystery to experts who found it to cause the limbs of the starfish to fall off and eventually disintegrate into slime and bones. They suspect that it was due to ecological changes caused by abnormally warm sea temperatures however, at the time that the virus broke out in Oregon, they were experiencing upwelling, where colder water was rising to the surface.

“It doesn’t mean necessarily that temperature is not involved, but it’s likely a much more complicated story.”

Although the virus has been detected in starfish as long as 70 years ago, it has had a devastating effect on the creatures in the last two years. Scientists are determined to find out more about the virus and what really triggers it before it attacks this new generation of starfish. They worry that the baby starfish will develop the virus as they enter adulthood.

“We’re kind of just waiting to see as we move into late spring and early summer of this year whether we have fresh outbreaks.”