Starfish are making a comeback on the US’ west coast, four years after a mysterious syndrome killed millions of them.
Between 2013 and 2014, Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit sea stars from British Columbia to Mexico. The starfish would develop lesions and then disintegrate, their arms turning into blobs of goo.
The cause is unclear, but researchers said it might be a virus.
However, the species is rebounding. Sea stars are being spotted in southern California tide pools and elsewhere, the Orange County Register said on Tuesday.
“They are coming back, big time,” Cabrillo Marine Aquarium aquarist Darryl Deleske said.
“It’s a huge difference,” Deleske said. “A couple of years ago, you wouldn’t find any. I dove all the way as far as Canada, specifically looking for sea stars and found not a single one.”
Similar die-offs of starfish on the west coast were reported in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, but the latest outbreak was far larger and more widespread, a report by researchers at the University of Santa Cruz said.
Beginning with ochre stars off Washington state, the disease spread, killing off mottled stars, leather stars, sunflower stars, rainbows and six-armed stars. It hit southern California by December 2013.
“When it did [arrive], you just started to see them melt everywhere,” Deleske said. “You’d see an arm here, an arm there.”
The recovery has been promising. Four adult sea stars, each about 20cm long, were spotted this month at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach.
“It’s a treasure we always hope to find,” Crystal Cove Conservancy education coordinator Kaitlin Magliano said.
“We lost all of them,” she said. “It’s good to see we have some surviving and thriving. Maybe the next generation will be more resilient.”
The stars are not out of danger yet. The wasting syndrome never completely disappeared in northern and central California and it has reappeared in the Salish Sea region of Washington state, a report by the University of Santa Cruz said last month.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese