CORVALLIS, Ore., May 8 (UPI) — A return of starfish babies along the coast of California has conservationists hopeful that a dramatic rebound is underway.
For the last two years, a deadly virus has decimated starfish populations along North America’s Pacific coast. Millions of starfish died.
In their absence, however, a baby boom has appeared.
The scientists at Oregon State University, who delivered the good news in the journal PLOS ONE, said the iconic species isn’t home free just yet.
Researchers described the number of juveniles found anchored to rocks along the California coast as “off the charts.”
“It wasn’t a case of high settlement, or more sea stars being born,” Bruce Menge, a professor of marine biology at Oregon State, said in a news release. “They just had an extraordinary survival rate into the juvenile stage.”
“Whether they can make it into adulthood and replenish the population without succumbing to sea star wasting disease is the big question,” Menge said.
During 2014 and 2015, “sea star wasting disease” killed off between 80 and 99 percent of purple sea stars, Pisaster ochraceus. The epidemic affected other sea star species ranging from Baja California to Alaska.
Researchers aren’t sure what exactly triggered the virulence. Their latest research effort found no link between the disease and rising ocean temperatures.
The scientists believe a range of environmental factors — like rising ocean acidification — may have served as stressors, making the starfish more vulnerable to the disease.
