Northwest Dive Club

We did KVI and Maury Island yesterday and I was shocked. At KVI, I saw no sunflower stars at all, and no ochre stars at either site. At Maury, the pilings were completely bare of starfish. DOZENS of decaying carcasses, mostly in advanced decomposition, lay scattered all over the sea floor. One or two sunflower stars showed signs of the disease. Again, no ochre stars at all. A very few mottle stars were showing signs of the disease, too. I think it struck me extremely hard at Maury because one is so used to the colorful palette of the pilings, and because of the white blotches everywhere marking the demise of the starfish.

I can't imagine what this is going to do to the ecosystem, but it also breaks my heart that our new divers won't be able to marvel at the amazing colors and forms of what used to be such abundant animals.

Cove 2 yesterday, the remains are washed up on the beach.

Dove Redondo first time today in about a month. The change was dramatically devastating. Surprisingly, there are still purple ochre stars on the pilings. But, the sunflower population is almost gone. I saw 1-2 healthy ones left. The other 10 or so that I saw are in the early stages. Lots of piles of goo and arms. And, then nothing. If it keeps up at this rate at that site, there will be no sunflowers left in the next few weeks, if not sooner, in my opinion.

We dove the south side of Redondo, south of the boat ramp, last week. I saw several sunflower stars that appeared to be healthy, but about twice as many that were either dead or dying. Max depth was 60 fsw, and most of the dead ones I saw were between 30 and 50 fsw.

December 22, 2013 Possession Fingers now joining the die-off. At the moment most of the sick ones are in shallower water in 7 to 20 feet. Only Sunflower stars affected at this point. About 25 of them in the first stage, five with severed arms.
Pink, Mottled and Ochre stars are OK so far.

Word is, it is spreading to the Port Hardy area as well :(

Thank you so much everyone, keep the reports coming, the scientists are very grateful...

TTN today--straight out from the entrance to the tire reefs over to the cabin cruiser. I did not see one sunflower star--alive, sick, dead, or recognizable goo pile. NONE. ZERO. ZIP. NADA.

That's great news. Laura, are photos still useful, or is there something else we could be doing to document this?

Photo's are still hugely useful! Keep on shooting and sharing!

These photos are from Titlow on 11/24/13: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 86fa6a4a8d Yesterday at 3-Tree, there would have been nothing to take pictures of. :(

Video with starfish from 12/14.

https://vimeo.com/82625617

There are tons of sunflower sea stars still alive and looking healthy in the Hood Canal. At least at Sund Rock... I didn't see a single disembodied sea star limb during two dives there this weekend.

The sciency types up at Friday Harbor labs, WWU, UCSC / MARINe network are looking for divers willing to survey a site or two with some regularity to help map the progression and impact of the ongoing Sea Star mortality event. (we need to map healthy sites as well so when/if they get hit, there is solid baseline data from which to track the disease progression)

If you and your buddy are looking for something to "do" underwater, or your club or dive shop has been looking for a meaningful project that is part of something larger, here is your chance!!!

Attached is a PDF of the protocol and included in that protocol grid that can be printed on waterproof paper or a laminated copy made for use with a grease pencil, or copied onto any standard slate.

Once you've collected the data, scan it or take a picture of it and send to Melissa Miner (her address is in the PDF)

The data collected is super important, and even though they don't know exactly what is causing the disease, learning as much as they can about is imperative.

Just dove the last several days off Lopez Island, and all the Sunflower, Blood, Rainbow and False Ochre stars were doing fabulous. No signs of stress (well, ONE had some thinning around the central disc), all were moving around, plump and healthy, looking very nice. (didn't see any other types of stars). Nice to know there's at least one spot in the NW that has evaded the creeping-crud afflicting their fellow stars.

- Janna

We've got this in our closed-system invertebrate tanks at the UW. Lost our single Pisaster brevispinus (spiny pink) and Evasterias (mottled) stars and half of our P. ochraceous (ochre stars) . So far, none of our Dermasterias (leathers) have shown any sign of it, even though they're in the same tank.
A Solaster stimpsoni by itself in a separate tank (but on the same system) died from it, so it's apparently waterborne.

Greg Jensen wrote: A Solaster stimpsoni by itself in a separate tank (but on the same system) died from it, so it's apparently waterborne.

If I had a university marine invert lab, I'd try keeping a specimen in water from the afflicted system--but I'd cook the water with a UV sterilizer first.

If UV keeps the disease at bay, it could narrow down the type of pathogen.

The team up at WWU Marine Labs are doing a series of experiments. All sorts of stuff, putting healthy and sick in same aquarium, putting sick ones in 'clean' water, etc...

Greetings,

Are there any data on how this disease progresses in individual animals?

At the Feiro Center we have two (of 4 total) Painted Stars (Orthosterias kohleri) that are showing arm curling and small lesions. The thing is, they have been 'stuck' on this level of affliction for over a month without noticable improvement or degradation. From my reading here and elsewhere I had gotten the impression that the disease progessed quite rapidly but that doesn't seem to be what we're seeing in our tanks.

We have an open system and draw our water from Port Angeles harbor.

Other stars in our facility:

Sunflower (Pyncnopodia helianthoides) [n=5] - Seem OK; no arm curling & although I thought I saw a small lesion a few weeks ago I haven't been able to find it since.

Sun (Solaster stimpsoni) [n=4] - Seem OK; no visible symptoms.

Mottled (Evasterias troscheli) [n=5] - Mostly OK; some possible arm curling in one individual.

Leather (Dermasterias imbricata) [n=2] - Seem OK; no visible symptoms.

Ochre (Pisaster ochraceus) [n=12+] - Seem OK; questionable arm curling in a few individuals.

Six Ray (Leptasterias spp.) [n=12+] - No 'standard' symptoms but two of these just laid eggs about a month earlier than normal.

Worriedly yours,
Alex

I dove at Titlow Beach yesterday (Dec 30; 0930 PST). We observed 8 healthy the sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) as well as 20 displaying various stages of the disease.

Are there any reports Whidbey/Possession side of Admiralty Inlet?

ljjames wrote:Are there any reports Whidbey/Possession side of Admiralty Inlet?

Check Jan's Whidbey Critters thread.
-Curt

First dive of 2014 - January 1st - Possession Fingers.
Sunflower stars - Wasting 11 - dozens others healthy
Ochre stars -5 healthy fine , but one severed ray found, no rest of body found
Pink, Blood and Mottled stars - all looking good

Keystone Jetty on December 31st:
1 wasting Sunflower all others healthy.
One Mottled star severed ray - rest of the injured body not found - all others OK

The Hood Canal (Flagpole, Elephant Wall) yesterday was looking healthy with the exception of possibly one sunflower in the early stages:

Ayers Pt (east side of Hood Canal)- no sign yet of the disease. Lots of hand-sized Pycnopodia.
Metridium didn't look so hot, though, with a lot of them scrunched down completely.