After a killer disease, baby starfish make comeback

In just two years, millions of starfish died off from disease along the West Coast. Now local marine life experts said the baby starfish population is making a comeback.

Professor Pete Raimondi studies ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He said a wasting disease killed off 20 different species of sea stars from Alaska down to Mexico.

“There’d be decay, and what usually followed was an arm would fall off and
then another arm and finally the whole animal would die.” he told News Channel 5.

But Raimondi said there may be hope for the starfish yet.
Researchers said at Terrace Point in Santa Cruz they’ve seen more baby starfish along the reef in one year than the past 15 years combined.

Hundreds of starfish in just one spot is rare, and now the question is why?

“When animals are stressed, invertebrates like sea stars are stressed, they
often times will reproduce all at once,” said Raimondi.

Raimondi said that mass reproduction increases the chance for fertilization. Researchers are shifting gears to see whether these baby starfish make it to adulthood.

“We don’t know if the disease is still present. If the disease is still
present, then the juveniles that we are starting to see, they may be
affected as well. It is too early to tell,” said Raimondi.

Raimondi said they’ll know more next year after studying various sites along the Pacific Coast. But the baby sea star boom is giving researchers hope the species will bounce back.