Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars

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1. ”WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists say they have at last solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars off the Pacific coast of North America in a decade-long epidemic.

   Sea stars – often known as starfish – typically have five arms and some species sport up to 24 arms. They range in color from solid orange to tapestries of orange, purple, brown and green.

   Starting in 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has devastated more than 20 species and continues today. Worst hit was a species called the sunflower sea star, which lost around 90% of its population in the outbreak’s first five years.

   “It’s really quite gruesome,” said marine disease ecologist Alyssa Gehman at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, who helped pinpoint the cause.

   The culprit? Bacteria that has also infected shellfish, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. ”

2. It took them 12 years to narrow it down to bacteria.

3. Good thing Canada invests in science

4. Shows the importance of funding research appropriately. Think about how much progress we could be making by studying our environment.

5. Somewhat odd the AP News captioned this as “US scientists believe they’ve at last solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars” when the study is led primarily by folks at Hakai Institute, which is a Canadian research station based in the Central Coast of British Columbia.

6. NOAA proposed the sunflower sea star for listing under the ESA a while back.

   No fucking way that happens under Trump.

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