University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers have found a half-dozen diseased sea stars in Kachemak Bay while surveying long-term monitoring sites.
Scientists had hoped that the so-called “wasting disease” caused by a Densovirus wouldn’t be able to spread to the bay’s cold waters.
Since 2013, millions of the sea stars have died from Baja California to Alaska from the disease that causes lesions to form, limbs to fall off, and eventual disintegration.
UAF researcher Brenda Konar says the tidal pools of Elephant Island is where the diseased creatures were found, a place where sea stars are normally the healthiest.
A die-off of the sea stars could cause a broad effect on the ecosystem as sea stars are the main predators of other animals like mussels according to Konar.