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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------