An Ochre Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus) infected with Sea Star Wasting Disease in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. (Photo: Kevin Schafer/Minden Pictures/Corbis)
Marine biologists are completely stunned by a recent epidemic of starfish committing suicide on the West Coast.
The phenomenon, dubbed “the Wasting,” has been going on for at least two years now as scientists have discovered the starfish are essentially devouring themselves along the coast, from Mexico to Alaska.
The story rose to national attention a few years ago, but scientists are now intent to solve the mystery. A recent VICE story highlighted the issue, and revealed that a virus was identified within many of the species that were dying. But that virus has been around for 70 years, so that discovery only posed more questions than answers.
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“There’s some trigger, probably an environmental trigger,” Rebecca Johnson, a Citizen Science Research Coordinator at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco told Yahoo Travel.
A volunteer reaches over to measure two tiny baby sea stars as a mature one clings nearby to a concrete piling on Washington’s Hood Canal near Poulsbo, Wash. Researchers say that there’s evidence that juvenile sea stars, while not entirely immune, may be less susceptible to a virus fingered as the likely culprit of the sea star wasting disease. (Photo: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
As marine biologists and scientists up and down the West Coast investigate the problem, there’s a way that beach-goers and tourists can help.
Take a picture of any starfish you see on the beaches of the Pacific West Coast and post it to iNaturalist, an app that lets people upload photos and information for researchers to enter into a database and help track the problem.
Johnson, who is also a research associate at the academy’s Department of Invertebrate Zoology & Geology, said there’s been about 2,000 observations loaded into the app trying to identify endangered starfish, which are actually known in scientific circles as sea stars.
