Dissolving sea stars hit San Diego

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jun/20/environment-sea-star-wasting-syndrome-san-diego/



June 20, 2014 - Handout photos courtesy the University of California Santa Cruz of diseased and healthy starfish, or sea stars. Hopkins, Pacific Grove, diseased Pisaster ochraceus.

Dissolving sea stars hit San Diego
By Deborah Sullivan Brennan
2:01 p.m.June 20, 2014 Updated1:59 p.m.

A mysterious ailment that annihilates sea stars has hit San Diego, after wiping out populations of the creatures farther north on the West Coast.

The condition, sea star wasting syndrome, produces lesions on the animals’ bodies, causing their limbs to detach and their flesh to disintegrate.

The damage can occur overnight, said Stephen Schroeter, a research ecologist with the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara, who is based in Carlsbad.

“It’s a virulent disease,” said Schroeter, who has worked on sea star wasting syndrome since the 1980s. “You could go from lesions of a half centimeter or smaller to a big melted sea star in a day.”