Research and management priorities to address sea star wasting syndrome. Mystery disease turning starfish into goo cbs news. Scientists investigate outbreak of sea star wasting syndrome. The wasting disease that is affecting sea stars also is not specific to one species. Cal state fullerton students and marine biologists are on the hunt for answers about a mysterious epidemic that wiped out. Sea stars along the west coast are experiencing an unprecedented dieoff. Their brilliant bodies splashing red, orange, and purple color across rock surfaces when the tide receded. A starfishkilling disease is remaking the oceans the. Over the last couple of years, sea stars along much of the pacific coast of north america have been experiencing a mass mortality event called sea star wasting syndrome.
She had heard reports that even captive sea stars in the vancouver aquarium were dying. All along the north american pacific coast, sea stars are succumbing to a poorlyunderstood malady known as sea star wasting syndrome ssws. An epidemic wasting disease, caused by a virus hewson et al. Sea star wasting syndrome has wiped out millions of. All observational data were gathered via a citizen. A mysterious disease has attacked more than 20 different species of starfish along the pacific coast since at least 20. In all, about a dozen species of sea stars are dying along the west coast. Scientists at cornell hope to identify the pathogen behind sea star wasting syndrome in the coming weeks, and their findings will be submitted to the journal. Now, fewer tidepools are brightened by these critters since the outbreak of sea star wasting syndrome occurred along the west coast. A syndrome known as sea star wasting disease causes the animal to lose limbs and eventually disintegrate. Sea star wasting disease is still a mystery, but experts are on the case. To see if sswd was still affecting wild populations, we surveyed populations of the sea star, pisaster ochraceus, in birch bay, wa.
Sea star wasting disease causes lesions to form on the body and legs, which eventually lead to tissue decay and. Recently however, a severe disease outbreak occurred in a group of very wellstudied organisms sea stars along the west coast of north america. Sea star wasting disease or starfish wasting syndrome is a disease of starfish and several other echinoderms that appears sporadically, causing mass mortality. Sea stars inhabiting the northeast pacific coast have recently experienced an extensive outbreak of wasting disease, leading to their degradation and disappearance from many coastal areas. Im your host, matt dozier, and on this episode weve got a tale of sickly sea stars, invading. Models with environmental drivers offer a plausible mechanism for. Sea stars and scholars national oceanic and atmospheric. Sea star wasting disease sswd first appeared in oregon in april 2014, and by june had spread to most of the coast. A few years ago oregons intertidal zone was stacked with sea stars. This diseased ochre star was found at davenport landing, north of santa cruz, calif.
Sea star wasting syndrome is a general description of a set of symptoms. The condition is technically known as sea star wasting disease or as sea star wasting syndrome. Sea star wasting disease among worst wildlife dieoffs say. Up to 90% of individuals showed signs of disease from juneaugust 2014. In 20 sea star wasting disease sswd caused an epizootic in over 20 species of asteroids along the west coast of north america. We assessed the impacts of sea star wasting disease in the salish sea, a canadian united states transboundary marine ecosystem, and worldwide hotspot for temperate asteroid species. Echinoderms, positioned taxonomically at the base of deuterostomes, provide an important system for the study of the evolution of the immune system. Formerly known as starfish, the creatures are being wiped out on a wide scale by a wasting disease. The sea star wasting syndrome was first discovered last june off the coast of washington state. Starfish make comeback after mysterious syndrome killed. Starfish wasting disease is due in part to microbiome imbalance. The scientific name of the ochre sea star is pisaster ochraceus. Rather than observing only the aftermatha team of researchers from uc merced is reconstructing the population and genetic consequences of an epidemic outbreak of sea star wasting disease. Sea star wasting syndrome killing thousands of starfish kpbs.
The recent outbreak of sea star wasting disease sswd is one of the largest marine epizootics in history, but the hostassociated microbial. Although delayed compared to areas to the north and south, sswd was initially most intense in north and central oregon and spread southward. However, there is little known about the cellular components and genes associated with echinoderm immunity. Research into what scientists have dubbed sea star wasting syndrome or melting syndrome is ongoing, but definitive answers remain elusive. Since june 20, sea stars in the northeast pacific ocean have been dying in a most gruesome fashion. The sea star wasting disease thats causing mysterious and dramatic dieoffs on the pacific coast is still killing the animals and hitting a bigger range of species over a larger area than. The wasting disease may be caused by a virus, but this is far from certain. Sea star wasting disease in the keystone predator pisaster. Characterizing potential bacterial pathogens of pisaster. Elise ladouceur is a resident anatomic pathologist at. Devastating transboundary impacts of sea star wasting.
First twisting into odd, tortured positions, otherwise healthylooking individuals soon develop lesions on their body and arms, which whiten with rot as their tissues degrade. Scientists find likely culprit behind mysterious sea star deaths scientists say a virus is responsible for the wasting disease that has been decimating the starfish population on the pacific coast. Densovirus associated with seastar wasting disease and. Earlier this year there were just a handful of isolated reports of sea star wasting disease around juneau and sitka. Six years after it was stricken by a wasting disease off the northern california coast, the sunflower sea star one of the most colorful starfish in the ocean has all but vanished, and the. In rocky intertidal habitats, populations of the dominant sea star. In this paper, we present evidence that the cause of the disease is transmissible from disease affected animals to apparently healthy individuals, that the disease. Five years ago, a mysterious disease began crippling sea star populations along the west coast. Starfish along the us pacific coast have been hit by the worstever disease outbreak seen in wild marine animals with one key species almost entirely wiped out, scientists say.
Sea star wasting syndrome caused millions of starfish along the west coast to disintegrate into blobs of goo. A healthy sunflower sea star that measures three feet across cruises across the bottom of waters. Mysterious disease turning sea stars to goo may disrupt. Massive pacific coast starfish dieoff is linked to global. The 202014 sea star wasting disease outbreak is an emergent, rapidly spreading disease, which has led to. This unprecedented phenomenon, known as sea star wasting disease sswd, ultimately affected more than 20. Devastating starfish disease may be caused by waterborne. Sea stars play a vital ecological role as top level predators shaping nearshore ecosystems. Sea star wasting disease devastated intertidal sea star populations from mexico to alaska between 2015, but little detail is known about its impacts to subtidal species. Pisaster ochraceus and at least 20 other species of sea star have been affected. Virus suspected in sea star wasting disease epidemic. The disease known as sea star wasting syndrome begins as a small lesion, and eventually results in the loss of limbs and ultimate disintegration and death of. Starfish make comeback after mysterious syndrome killed millions.
Scientists find likely culprit behind mysterious sea star. The disease, called sea star wasting syndrome ssws has persisted at low levels in. A sea star with category 3 sea star wasting disease has lesions on most of its body and is missing one to two arms. You can also download a free app called california tidepools for your smart. The teams observations are considered the first official record of an ongoing outbreak of a sea star wasting disease. Sea stars starfish along north americas west coast have been dying at an alarming rate. Within months, it had spread from alaska to mexico. Scientists zero in on whats causing starfish dieoffs science. Sea star wasting syndrome killing thousands of starfish youtube.
Sea star disease epidemic surges in oregon, local extinctions expected june 04, 2014 just in the past two weeks, the incidence of sea star wasting syndrome has exploded along the oregon coast and created an epidemic of historic magnitude, one that threatens to decimate the entire population of purple ochre sea stars. The disease exacted a similar toll on a range of other sea star. Sea star wasting syndrome ssws caused mass dieoffs along much of the north american pacific coast beginning in 20. Densovirus associated with seastar wasting disease and mass mortality initially. Spatial outbreak pattern for sea star wasting disease in the ochre seastar pisaster ochraceus. The disease arrived on the central coast of british columbia in 2015 and rapidly killed 96 percent of the sunflower sea stars in the region. The mysterious disease has not yet reached san diego, but some. Sea stars are dying off at dramatic rates across the west coast from baja california in mexico to alaska. The largest noncommercial marine mass mortality event on record as of 20 created a natural experiment and an opportunity to study genomic changes in wild populations with unprecedented detail.
Sea stars along much of the north american pacific coast experienced a massive dieoff in 2014 due to a mysterious wasting syndrome. From mexico to alaska, sea stars withered and died, their bodies dissolving into mush, leaving nothing but goo and spines behind. Its been called sea star wasting syndrome because of how quickly the stars become sick and deteriorate. Our surveys indicated that advanced symptoms lesion formation increased 73% from july to september in 2017. Colorful sea star stricken by disease vanishes from most. The outbreak extended from baja california to the southern shores of alaska. Largescale impacts of sea star wasting disease sswd on. Scientists zero in on whats causing starfish dieoffs. Mass starfish death is biggest disease epidemic ever seen. Sea star wasting disease or starfish wasting syndrome is a disease of starfish and several other echinoderms that appears sporadically, causing mass mortality of those affected. Why are sea stars growing sores, losing their arms, and dying within a few days. Ochre or purple sea star facts and a deadly wasting disease. The disease seems to be associated with raised water temperatures in some places, but not others. A dieoff of sea stars so massive that scientists believe it could be the largest disease epidemic ever observed in wild marine animals has been linked in a new study to global warming.
How an epidemic exposed the ecological importance of sea. Disease outbreaks can have substantial impacts on wild populations, but the often patchy or anecdotal evidence of these impacts impedes our ability to understand outbreak dynamics. The largest noncommercial marine mass mortality event on record as of 20 created a natural experiment and an. Similar dieoffs occurred in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, but never before at.
Sea star wasting disease, revisited hakai magazine. Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology vol. On animal deaths and human anxieties the new yorker. A collaborative strategic action plan we have formed the four working. Microbiome shifts with onset and progression of sea star wasting. Creatures with the sea star wasting disease simply fall apart and progress rapidly to death, often leaving. Over the next two years, as geographically diverse populations continued to crash, scientists coined the term sea star wasting disease sswd to refer to the unexplained forces that were causing the devastation.
559 699 666 1323 1381 1061 15 979 1524 982 1290 356 332 73 1205 1067 291 1173 564 348 673 1308 41 1337 37 403 365 34 423 964 125 1017 274 390 1339 416 1087 1098 204 187