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Marine mystery disease along Pacific Coast baffles scientists

marine-mystery-disease-pacific-coast-baffles-scientists

Sea stars up and down the Pacific Coast are dying off in record numbers, and scientists say they can't figure out what's going on. Reports indicate that in some areas of Washington State, for instance, upwards of 80 percent of the sea star population has vanished, while other areas are reporting strange phenomena like sea star limbs falling off and literally walking away on their own — what one marine group coordinator likened to "an alien thing."

For the past several years, students, environmentalists, and even ordinary citizens have noticed a drastic increase in the number of gravely ill or dead sea stars littering the West Coast. One group that monitors sea life around Island County, Washington, says sea stars are increasingly succumbing to a mystery disease that some have dubbed "star wasting" syndrome that, when it runs its full course, causes sea stars to disintegrate.

"The ones I'm seeing, a very large percentage appear to be diseased," stated Charlie Seablom, a volunteer for Island County Beach Watchers, to the Whidbey News-Times. "It's real[ly] sad to see animals like that die off…. I just hope they find the cause and then maybe a cure before they're all gone."

Rayna Holtz and Yvonne Kuperberg, two Vashon Beach Naturalists, agree. They told the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber that they've been watching sea stars dwindle for quite some time. What was once one of the Puget Sound's most plentiful and iconic sea creatures has become a diseased relic, with no end of the devastation in sight.

"I would say the disease hasn't been abating," Holtz, who combs the beaches in her area weekly, is quoted as saying. "It looks to me like it's raging."

Holtz and many others have been tracking the ups and downs of sea stars along the Washington coast, observing their visible numbers and apparent state of health. Even in areas that are relatively untouched by humans, sea stars are turning up dead or in terrible health, with their limbs falling off or disintegrating due to some unknown trigger.

Scientists claim that they don't know what's causing the widespread disease, attributing it to some unknown virus or pathogen that must be circulating in ocean waters. Others blame warmer-than-usual ocean temperatures that they say must be incubating the mystery disease, avoiding any talk of the role that environmental pollution and Fukushima radiation could be playing in the phenomenon.

One thing is for sure, though — the disease is spreading and worsening in many areas, and now threatens sea star populations as far south as Mexico. While the average die-off along the Pacific Coast is between 30 and 50 percent, scientists are documenting near-total decimation in some areas, including in Santa Cruz where localized die-offs of as many as 95 percent of ochre sea stars has been observed.

"This is an unprecedented event," said Bruce Menge, a marine biologist at Oregon State University (OSU), to CV Independent. "We've never seen anything of this magnitude before."

At the very least, the sea star genocide is likely being caused by some combination of pollution, radiation and temperature change, with the possibility of a viral and/or bacterial component. Nobody really knows for sure, since a causal link has not been identified, but there are many who insist that Fukushima radiation is a definite culprit.

"I'm theorizing that those so-called scientists are actually very aware of the radionuclide soup as being the source of extinction, and their love of the ocean life causes them to pretend they don't know what's wrong, because they don't want to come to terms with it," wrote one ENENews.com commenter.

"When the full realization of radiation contamination is acknowledged, it will be undeniable that there is no cure. Just as some cultures fear failure and instead favor saving face, academics also has an obvious bias."

Sources for this article include:

http://enenews.com
http://www.vashonbeachcomber.com
http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com
http://homertribune.com
http://www.cvindependent.com
http://science.naturalnews.com

Source: NaturalNews
Written by Ethan A. Huff

Featured image: Sea stars by Tim Winter (CC – Flickr)

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16 Comments

  1. What about that tire debris sludge that is adrift under the Seattle sound, comes from our car tread wearing off and collecting via rainwater depositing into the sea…humanity killing all. I am ashamed of us.

  2. Seriously people, we have to stop these people! Take power from them. Start by not voting, do not vote for anyone. Send a message, its time for a change. The republicans and democrats don't exist, not anymore! Its a corporate ran government and they don't care about anything but money! Poison our food, Poison our water, take away our rights. How long before we wake up and say its over? When its too late? : (

    1. IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE!!! DIABOLICAL,PARASITICAL GRASPING CORPORATE-GOVERNMENT WITH ALL OF IT'S BACK DOOR DEALS AND SECRET MANIPULATIONS OF MAIN STREAM MEDIA WILL HAUNT THEM .THERE ACTUALLY IS NO TIME LEFT!! THE COLLAPSE IS HERE NOW!!! NOT TOMORROW…BUT NOW!!!THE ECONOMY IS ALREADY DEAD! NOT DYING…,BUT DEAD!!! LOOK FOR VIOLENT RIOTS, OUTRIGHT DEFIANCE OF GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE EVERYWHERE!IT'S HAPPENING NOW BUT NOT BEING REPORTED.SOLUTION?…..ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT MUST VOLUNTARILY TAKE A 50% CUT OF ALL BENEFITS,PERKS,ETC. (I'M LAUGHING NOW).

    2. There has not been any real voting in the U.S. for decades! At least since Reagan was shot in 1981. I call him, "The Great Facilitator" for helping to bring in this 33 year Bush Sr. New World Order under the Vatican's Christian CROSS, Revelation 13:18.
      Web Search: Bush Nazi Family Connections
      Now we hear that Jeb Bush is a "front runner"!
      Yahshua the Messiah returns VERY SOON and no Vatican NWO can stop HIM! HalleluYah!
      PLEASE WAKE UP FOLKS!

      1. Becarefull satan appears at the 6th trump claiming to be Jesus (Rev.12:6-9) when hes cast out of Heaven to earth. Our real Lord Jesus comes a short time after at the 7th trump n we will be changed in the twinkling of n eye back in our spirit bodies Don't be decieved by satan.

  3. @ donb, you bet they have. and they know that's the major issue. and they aren't ever going to report it. when earlier this year that guy in San Francisco took his Geiger counter to the beach and recorded radiation levels at 5X normal, and the gov't boys came to debunk it only to find that there equipment showed the same thing, their only comment was: "We can't explain it. We don't understand how this is happening." Then not another word in the press about it. Seriously? They don't understand, eh?

    Between the the oil leaks, the toxic waste from those mines in Canada last week, and the FACT that the oceans worldwide are completely contaminated with radiation, why is anyone wondering what's causing all the massive deaths of the marine life??? And it's not from warm waters.

    1. dc I agree its Fukushima and the bad part is its drifting all over the united states. radio active rain in Missouri so like you said all of the oceans are contaminated. and this is just the beginning of the governments lie,s cancer all around for every one. :/

  4. Seeing all this tragedy that we, humans, made and all harm we are perpetrating to mother earth, one wonders: we deserve defenitely what will happen to us soon…earth will wash herself and get rid of us, selfish and corrupted creatures.

  5. Ocean hypoxia – when salt water heats up it loses it's ability to carry oxygen. It starts at the bottom and works it up. Now what is important is why we're not being told this…..

  6. I take it that they would have checked for irradiation caused by the Japanese reactor which is still leaking massive amounts of radiation into the Pacific, only a thought.

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