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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