Alaska: “Scientists alarmed by new mystery disease” — Pacific Northwest: “Alarming changes” — “Couldn’t believe my eyes” — “Scientists really stumped… It’s kind of an alien thing” — “Gotten much, much worse… a horror show… could wreak havoc on entire ecosystems from Mexico to Alaska” (VIDEO)

Wednesday, August 6, 2014
By Paul Martin

ENENews.com
August 6th, 2014

Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber (Washington), July 30, 2014: “I would say the disease hasn’t been abating. It looks to me like it’s raging,” [Rayna Holtz] said last week. […] Other islanders have reported steep declines in the sea star populations […] with an especially bad die-off in June. In May, a group of students […] counted about 800 sea stars […] in mid-June […] 60 to 80 percent of the sea stars were gone […] many of the ones that were left were visibly sick and “at death’s door.” The early summer die-off was also seen at other beaches around Puget Sound […] “The students were surprised, dismayed and somewhat astounded by the fact that these starfish were disintegrating almost before their eyes” […] Holtz observed the same thing across the harbor in Dockton. […] she counted just one juvenile sea star and no adult stars. “I couldn’t believe my eyes […] The areas that had not been touched in February have succumbed now.” […] Karlista Rickerson, an avid scuba diver […] estimates she’s seen about 80 percent of the sea stars disappear [underwater]. Some from the scuba community have been asked to count sea stars as deep as 120 feet […] “There aren’t any to count anymore,” she said last week.

Homer Tribune, Aug. 5, 2014: Scientists alarmed by new mystery disease […] A scientist visiting Alaska, Karyn Traphagen, said […] “I came in May and September 2013 […] I saw signs of it then, but it was much more pronounced when I returned last month […] I then went back to my 2013 photos and found some evidence of the disease as early as May 2013.” […] On its website, [UC Santa Cruz says] It’s not the Fukushima radiation: “[…] that wouldn’t have arrived here yet. Also, just the distribution of the disease and apparent lack of the disease in other areas, really doesn’t lend itself to (a Fukushima link).” […] Researchers are leaning toward the theory that “it may be a pathogen of some sort that is distributed through ocean currents”

Whidbey News-Times (Washington), Jul 31, 2014: Volunteer for the Island County Beach Watchers organization since 1993, [Charlie] Seablom has started to see alarming changes in his favorite sea creature. […] “Scientists are really stumped […] limbs have been known to fall off and crawl away on their own,” [Beach Watchers’ Barbara Bennett] said. “It’s kind of an alien thing.”

Whidbey News-Times, Jul 27, 2014: Bennett opined [it] could be happening because other things are off balance, such as […] chemistry of the ocean. It may also be the result of pollution […]

High Country News, July 4, 2014: I first wrote about Pacific sea stars falling victim to a mysterious disease last fall […] It’s gotten much, much worse. […] what’s behind this intertidal horror show […] no one really knows. […] an epidemic that could wreak havoc on entire ecosystems from Mexico to Alaska, and we can’t pin down the cause. […] The lack of concrete information also provides fertile ground for conspiracy theorists, particularly those who like to blame all mysterious ocean problems on Fukushima radiation-an idea roundly dismissed by scientists.

‘Conspiracy theories’ roundly dismissed by scientists?

“‘What about Fukushima…?’ We haven’t ruled that out” -Pete Raimondi, UC Santa Cruz
“Researchers say nuclear pollution… could be partially to blame for a disease wiping out starfish… Raimondi also says scientists can’t rule out nuclear pollution”-1130 AM
“We’ve had a lot of questions about whether it is related to radiation from Fukushima, we can’t completely exclude that possibility” -Ian Hewson, Cornell University
“There is speculation that the die-off could be due to… Fukushima. [Biologist Paula Romagosa] said that doesn’t sound likely because the first place it was seen was in a remote area of Indian Arm* [near Vancouver] and not the west coast” -Times Colonist

*The die-off was observed in Alaska during May of 2013 — 3 months before Indian Arm. Fukushima-contaminated water arrived in Alaska in 2012 and Vancouver in June 2013.

The Rest…HERE

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