Starfish Suffering From Sea Star Wasting Syndrome Lose Arms and Disintegrate

Posted on February 3, 2014

Sea star wasting syndrome is causing starfish to lose their arms and die on the U.S. west coast from Alaska to Southern California. Scientists do not yet know the mystery ailment causing the starfish deaths. A USGS bulletin reports that sea stars have been dying by the millions. Pisaster ochraceus (purple sea star or ochre starfish) and Pycnopodia helianthoides (sunflower sea star) are the two species most affected by the disease.

"The most commonly reported clinical sign is small white lesions on the arms of the starfish that quickly progress into large extensive lesions encompassing the arm and disc, causing the animal to lose limbs and eventually disintegrate within a few days. Dense aggregations of sea stars may die in a matter of weeks. Entire populations have been decimated in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea (Washington and Vancouver) and along the California coast. Scientists have been monitoring these intertidal ecosystems for decades."

Earthfix reports that some stars suffering from the syndrome will melt into "piles of mush." Earthfix also reports that scientists observed the sick stars in tanks. In some sick starfish the arms rip off their bodies and crawl away. Starfish can regenerate arms, but in this case they were too sick to do so.

Within a few hours, the sick stars started ripping themselves apart. The arms crawled in opposite directions tearing away from the body.

Take a look:

More information about sea star wasting syndrome can be found here on a University of California Santa Cruz page.

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