Head Scientist: “I used to think I knew” why mystery epidemic is decimating millions of West Coast starfish, “but now I don’t” — Toxic pollution now suspected — Fukushima ‘not dismissed’ as cause — California Professor: Significant levels of fallout got into our coastal food web… marine life exposed… It’s not good
ENENews.com
September 10th, 2014
NOAA, Sept 5, 2014: Disease is destroying sea stars along entire Pacific coast of N. America
Skagit Valley Herald, Sept. 7, 2014: “It certainly is shocking… from 51 sea stars with none of them affected to all of them affected, and then gone.”
The Straight (Vancouver), Aug 20, 2014: [Sea] stars that normally crammed into every rock gully along the beach were missing. Not one starfish… empty black crevices… devoid of life. This scene is repeated up and down the West Coast… Divers report piles of white goo and pieces of starfish arms on the ocean floor… [T]o suddenly disappear is more than disconcerting: it is truly shocking. The speed… is mystifying. Yet the great die-off has not attracted that much media coverage… what else might follow tomorrow?
Portland Monthly, August 2014: In the spring, [Oregon State Prof. Bruce Menge] says, the tide pools were lined with thousands of healthy sea stars… The sickly few that remain hang limply
Laguna Beach Independent, Sept. 4, 2014: Scientists [say] pollution is surfacing as a suspected cause… [UC Santa Cruz biology professor] Pete Raimondi… attended a sea star “mortality event” conference… and left confused… Water pollution, scientists agree, is usually localized and doesn’t affect an entire coastline or an entire species. Usually… Scientists are debating [if] a secondary infection took over because the sea stars were weak due to environmental pollutants… Raimondi reported that pollution is being considered because no pathogens were detected in the animals until a secondary infection took over… [The] findings raised a question, Raimondi relayed… if the bacteria is always present… why would it lead to an epidemic now?
Prof. Raimondi: “I used to think I knew, but now I don’t… AIDS would be a good example for a human analogy… what kills you off is usually a secondary infection… I left [the conference] much more uncertain than when I walked into the room.”
The Rest…HERE
