Starfish Horror Show on PBS Newshour
Like something out of a ecological horror film star starfish are literally tearing themselves apart.
A disease that has yet to be classified causes the starfish arms to twist and then rip away from the rest of the body allowing its insides to pour out. Scientists are currently researching what may cause it. Before you go screaming Fukushima read this article from DeepSeaNews.com – it’s been happening long before that. Studies so far believe that there is likely a viral connection. The disease, whatever it is, effects many different types of starfish, though doesn’t seem to spread through close contact.
A videographer, seen in the video is calling on people who see sick or dismembered starfish to take a photo with the hashtag #sickstarfish – as they are compiling reports on the website SickStarfish.com. While their map doesn’t have any Alaskan hits so far – there has been previous reports of this disease in Alaska according to the video.
More video’s documenting the starfish disease.
I find it interesting of how little exposure events like the starfish disintegrating get in the daily news. Things like the bee problem, disappearance or extinction of frogs due to fungal infection especially in Central America and Australia, bats that are losing out due to again fungal infections, songbirds with curled bills which inhibits their ability to eat, critically endangered wild animals like the Siberian tiger and the Bactrian camel in Central Asia or the host of other big wild animals on the African savannah, and other such events rarely, if ever, get headline news. (Wouldn’t it be nice if TV reality shows were developed to actually address solving these problems? Can’t see that happening but it is a thought). But back to the topic of lack of exposure: I just read an article recently in one of our trade journals about persons who have certain types of mutated genes who upon exposure to pesticides, particularly rotenone, could develop Parkinson’s disease. I doubt if that will be reported upon heavily in the news.
I love starfish (with the exception of the Crown-of-Thorns, which eats coral, and whose major predator is the triton, which gets hunted for its lovely shell too much for it to endure). I hope the biologists figure this out.