Northwest Dive Club

Tangfish wrote:I'd say the sea urchins are one of the prime beneficiaries of the sea star die-off. Damn spiny bastards!

And the barnacles. Three Tree is looking like it received a dusting of snow.

Spotted a couple dozen sunflower stars at Mukilteo Clay Wall (site off the Lighthouse Park). Again, fist-size or smaller.

Puget Sound Recovery Caucus reintroduces bill to find solutions to sea star wasting syndrome and other underwater disease emergencies

Congressman Denny Heck introduces Marine Disease Emergency Act in new Congress to establish official emergency process in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 13, 2015 – In an effort to save the Puget Sound from what is being termed “sea star wasting syndrome” as well as other major marine disease emergencies, Representative Denny Heck (WA-10) and the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus are introducing the Marine Disease Emergency Act for consideration by the 114th Congress.

The legislation would establish the template for determining marine disease emergencies and the development of a 120-day rapid response plan.

The proposal follows the outbreak of the sea star wasting syndrome, which has been described as the “largest underwater disease epidemic on our U.S. shores, stretching from Alaska to Mexico on our West Coast and covering an unknown area on the East Coast, and involving over 20 species” by Professor Drew Harvell, a marine ecologist with Cornell University.

“Starfish are a keystone species, meaning their decline will hit the ecosystem and economy hard if something isn’t done soon,” Heck said. “The Marine Disease Emergency Act will work to save our delicate ecosystem and prevent the inevitable backlash for our marine environment and fishing industries.”

Under the guidelines of the Marine Disease Emergency Act, sea star wasting syndrome will be declared a marine disease emergency triggering a series of steps to stop the spread.

The bill also establishes:

· A national data repository to facilitate the development, coordination, and rapid dissemination of research.
· A “Marine Disease Emergency Fund” within the Treasury Department to accept public donations.
· A permanent, volunteer “Marine Disease Working Group” to advise the Secretary of Commerce on marine disease emergencies.

Early support of this bill is bipartisan and bicoastal, including the following original cosponsors:

· Representative and Puget Sound Recovery Caucus Co-Chair Derek Kilmer (WA-06)
· Representatives and Puget Sound Recovery Caucus members Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Jim McDermott (WA-07), and Adam Smith (WA-09)
· Representatives Lois Capps (CA-24) and Jared Huffman (CA-02)
· Representatives David Jolly (FL-13) and Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
· Representative and Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (NJ-06)
· Representative Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)

The Marine Disease Emergency Act has also received strong support from the Seattle Aquarium’s Marine Policy and Marine Conservation Network. It was first introduced by Heck on September 18, 2014.

Congressmen Heck and Kilmer co-founded the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus in 2013 as part of their ongoing commitment to preserving the Puget Sound. The three priorities of the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus are: preventing pollution from urban storm water runoff, protecting and restoring habitat, and restoring and re-opening shellfish beds.

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CONTACT:
Kati Rutherford, 202-226-4013

Saw sunflower stars and a striped sun star at Point Hudson in Port Townsend this past weekend. They're starting to get larger than fist sized.

Excellent news!

We had wasting disease at Shilshole today, some small Rose stars looking sickly, but a few larger stimpsoni which is promising.

keep in mind if you see 'adult' stars, its very unlikely that they matured in such a short time (there are some articles on rate of growth that Dr. Paine dug up for pisaster) but the DO migrate up and down depth wise seasonally. What this means is that if we are finding 'big' stars, it is more likely that they are coming up for spawning season or the likes. This is good news because it means that there is hopefully a more intact deep population to draw on (Dr. Paine has articles on that too).

If you are are out doing tech dives or OpenROV dives to >100' it would be really cool if folks could report back with regards to stars in deeper water. I know the scientists would be super grateful. Either report back here, take some photo's or even a video survey with a gopro will be helpful

Guess I saw two striped sun stars and a regular sun star.
http://derekcs.smugmug.com/Underwater/S ... /i-CQBxpQJ
http://derekcs.smugmug.com/Underwater/S ... /i-b2xgdpT
http://derekcs.smugmug.com/Underwater/S ... /i-4MDF9ZM

We spent the last 4 days at Hood Canal, diving primarily Mikes' Beach Resort and Octopus Hole. We found lots of healthy young sunflower stars, and at least one full-grown one. Other stars look healthy as well, I didn't see a single wasted one. That was exciting to see.

I noticed something similar at Sund during the club dive. There weren't the normal numbers of sea stars yet, but the ones I did see looked healthy and no wasting disease.

I was hoping the mess with sea stars is over, but Langley had a nasty surprise for me:

Here's a national geographic article about the disease and how it may be affecting urchins too:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015 ... a-animals/

Now there is beer dedicated to the wasting disease ...

omfg I gotta get me some!

Three Tree North had signs of wasting disease as well yesterday. Was hoping it was over...

Did my annual volunteer dive at Sitka Natioanl Historic Park on May 19th and could not find a single Sunflower Star. I did find 1(one) Giant Pink Star and several leather stars.

Magic Island is also devoid of large Sunflower Seastars.

We dove Titlow Marine Reserve on Tuesday, and I was delighted to see several good-sized (8 - 10 inches) sunflower stars, which appeared healthy.

Thanks for the reports!

In many areas the scientists are still reporting numbers in the 10% range of previous years for pisaster and few if any sunflower stars.

Cove 2 is showing mid sized mottled stars (so some are either immune or ??) but none or very few sunflower and pisaster.

Junkyard has a few mid sized sunflower last time I was out, a bunch of smaller than hand sized, and one or two adult sized pisaster on the logs if you are headed over towards the point.

The Alki Pipeline has more pisaster (the purple stars) than earlier in the season (they may have migrated 'up' for spawning season?) but some are showing lesions.

Shilshole (out from the beach) was bereft of pisaster, mottled, and sunflower. The lone star I saw whilst out there was a single rose star and it had lesions and was falling apart. :(

Kayak Point 5/28/15
* one Mottled star
* No Sunflowers, Spiny Pink, .........

Camano Island State Park 5/29/15
* 3 wasting stars
* 30+ Mottled
* 15+ Spiny Pink
* 10+ small Ochre
* 10+ juvenile Sunflower

The new round of wasting is upon us :(

Bad news Jan...hope it passes and they recover.

I was just thinking that many of the sea stars I've been seeing look very healthy once again, even though they're in smaller quantities. But as you guys say, I don't see sunflower stars [CRYING FACE]

Saw this sunflower yesterday at Les Davis. It was about 14 inches across, which makes it the biggest one I have seen in a few years. Also saw some wasting sea stars.

And here we go again - the die off starting in earnest at Langley Harbor :(

Nooo! Please say it ain't so.

I wish I could say it is just a bad dream ...