A team of both American and Canadian researchers have finally identified a deadly virus which has wiped out millions of sea stars along the Pacific Coast. Known as “sea star wasting disease”, the virus causes limbs to waste away, fall off and essentially causes the animal to melt to a slimy pile of jelly. Once-healthy sea star populations have virtually vanished from many areas in Puget Sound, including West Seattle’s once vibrant tide pools at Constellation Beach. Pier uprights, once covered in brightly colored sea stars, are now bare. Local researchers, including those at the Seattle Aquarium, have been highly involved in the urgent quest to find the killer before entire populations vanish. Area beach naturalists have been providing valuable data and sea star counts at low tides. Seal Sitters’ volunteer Buzz Shaw, retired Seattle Aquarium zoologist and now a beach naturalist, comments that it is interesting that he chose the past few years to do his sea star and invertebrate counts at Constellation, “never dreaming of the value of the baseline.”

Yesterday, the research team released their findings in a scientific paper you can read here. For a layman’s explanation of the findings, read the Smithsonian article here.

For additional in-depth information, watch the PBS NewsHour/Earthfix segment on wasting disease, featuring underwater video by West Seattle diver and environmental advocate Laura James.