Photograph by Jerry Kirkhart
Scientists are trying to find the cause of a mystery wasting disease that is affecting starfish in record numbers along the west coast of the US, turning their limbs into slime in less than a week.
The disease, known as “star wasting disease” will be the focus of an extensive survey by marine biologists and ecologists due for launch later this week, as scientists scramble to try to understand its causes.
The first symptoms of the disease are white lesions on the limbs of the starfish that then spread inward to cover the rest of the body causing the animal to rapidly disintegrate and tissue melt away.
Researchers believed that the cause may be a pathogen, and have seen small numbers of starfish affected over the last decade, but do not know why the current outbreak is so widespread.
At least ten species are reported to have shown signs of the disease since June, causing some to worry that the high death-rate of starfish could result in an overcrowding of mussels in the affected areas of the ocean, disrupting the delicate biodiversity of the waters.
