Pacific Northwest Starfish Seem Set for Comeback After Deadly Disease

Two years after a virus devastated colonies of starfish along the U.S. west coast, the population is showing early signs of a comeback, at least in some areas.
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The number of juveniles in the Pacific Northwest is “off the charts,” said Bruce Menge, a marine biologist at Oregon State University. “Higher than we’d ever seen — as much as 300 times normal,” Menge said. Young starfish usually have to compete with adults for food. But with up to 84 percent of the adult population wiped out from an outbreak of “sea star wasting disease” two years ago, juveniles have had abundant resources to thrive, Menge and his colleagues reported in a recent PLOS ONE journal. However, the researchers warn starfish populations aren’t entirely in the clear. “Whether they can make it into adulthood and replenish the population without succumbing to sea star wasting disease is the big question,” Menge said in a statement.