Star fish—or as biologists call them, sea stars—appear to be making a comeback along the West Coast. New scientific surveys show a large number of young stars in the coastal waters from the Monterey Bay up to the Washington coast.
Sea stars have been suffering from a mass wasting disease in recent years. Die-offs like this have happend in the past, but have never been recorded at this magnitude and over such a wide geographic area, according to the UC Santa Cruz Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department.
UCSC's Pete Raimondi is one of the foremost scientists looking at the problem. He said stress caused by the wasting disease may have caused the sea stars to over produce eggs and sperm. The other possibility is that a large number of environmental factors came together.
"We think it might be due to stress, but there's that other possibility that we just got real lucky this year and we're having good recruitment," said Raimondi.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly Scientist Jennifer O'Leary with the California Sea Grant is studying sea star colonies near Port San Luis. She said Monday that she's not seeing the increased numbers reported further north, but had heard about the findings.
Raimondi said it will take a while to find out where we are with the wasting disease.