Any indication of the cause?



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On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 11:36 AM CST Steve Rosenthal wrote:

>there was a story on the network news last night about an emergent die-off
>of large sea stars (ochre and sunflower stars) going on along the west
>coast, so far no explanation. It was noted that the phenomenon was
>widespread, but not at all continuous, ie large unaffected areas between
>affected areas (in fact two areas in Central Oregon i visited last week had
>perfectly healthy looking ochre stars).
>
>One marine ecologist noted that of course there would be impacts to the
>rocky intertidal community, particularly the california mussels, released
>from predatory pressure. would become more dominant and potentially crowd
>out other species competing for space. And they showed a picture of mussels
>in their matural habitat up close.
>
>there are several related articles on the internet.
>
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