MSNBC: Largest epidemic ever seen in world’s oceans hits West Coast — Emergency legislation proposed in US Congress — Newsweek: Millions dead, researchers have lost count — Experts: It’s beyond anything I ever imagined… Disintegrating before our eyes… Never been an event so dramatic… Shorelines losing biodiversity, blanketed in barnacles (VIDEO)
ENENews.com
October 2nd, 2014
KPLU, Sept. 18, 2014 (emphasis added): Proposed Emergency Legislation Aims To Address Starfish Wasting Syndrome… U.S. Rep. Denny Heck… introduced an emergency act in Congress… addressing the sea star epidemic… Heck’s Marine Disease Emergency Act [also creates] funding mechanisms to deal with future outbreaks of marine disease.
Congressman Heck: “Sea stars do not function underwater in a vacuum… This could be a sign of a deeper problem.”
Newsweek, Oct. 2, 2014: A grisly horror show is playing out along the West Coast… millions of dead and dying sea stars… victims of a swift and brutal illness… organs rupture… arms fall off. Ultimately, the sea star dissolves, as if melted by acid… This summer, the outbreak morphed into a full-scale epidemic… so bad that researchers have lost count of how many stars are lost. They estimate millions… food webs are being upended… shorelines that used to be dotted with sea stars and other species are now blanketed with barnacles growing with abandon, a sign of the loss of biodiversity on the coast… The wasting syndrome has also been reported in populations along the East Coast [see Dr. Miner’s comment below].
The Rest…HERE
