An unbelievably gruesome epidemic is ravaging starfish populations

A occult illness has claim the lives of X of M of starfish on North America ’s west coast , and its symptom are appal . Dubbed “ sea wizard wasting syndrome , ” the arm of an septic individual will twist into slub , educate lesions , and finally creep away in polar directions until they tear away from its body , allowing its inside to disgorge out .

Researchers still are n’t indisputable how the disease unfold , let alone where it comes from . What they do know is that sea stars engage a pivotal recess in sea ecosystem , and large - scale of measurement die out are almost certainly a very unsound sign . In a entrancing slice that ’s as distressing as it is distressing , PBS exceptional newspaperman Katie Campbell reportson how researchers and citizen scientists are teaming up to investigate the spread of the secret syndrome :

Want to help researcher cipher out what ’s going on ? Headhereandhereto larn how you’re able to facilitate scientists dog the relative incidence and spreadhead of the syndrome with pic and the hashtag # sickstarfish .