Another indicator moving the wrong way.
One of the largest sea star species in the world has been listed as critically endangered on Thursday after a global study shows the species population has been decimated by a marine epidemic. The sunflower sea star, once abundant in marine waters from Alaska to Baja California in Mexico, is on the brink of extinction along the West Coast waters in the United States after a marine wildlife epidemic event referred to as the sea star wasting syndrome began in 2013…Oregon State University, along with The Nature Conservancy and dozens of conservation groups, led a groundbreaking study that found 90.6% of the species population has been wiped out and estimated as many as 5.75 billion animals died from the disease since the die-off began. This has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) as critically endangered. Monica Samayoa reports. (OPB) See also: Sunflower Stars Now Critically Endangered Though sunflower star numbers have plummeted, scientists are holding out hope for these once-common denizens of the Pacific. (Hakai Institute)
Sunflower sea stars declared critically endangered on West Coast
Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Endangered Species, Environmental Science |
