Virus destructing sea stars on Pacific Coast

Scientists have now explained the mysteriously sudden appearance of a disease that has decreased the number of sea stars on the North American Pacific Coast. Specimens from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) have helped in explaining this mystery. Is is being detected that the virus on particles suspended in seawater, as well as in sediment, and showed that it is harboured in animals related to sea stars, such as sea urchins and brittle stars. It is transported by ocean currents, accounting for its rapid, widespread dispersal in the wild. Their large-scale disappearance is anticipated to have a serious and long-lasting ecological impact on coastal habitats, because sea stars are voracious predators, with a key role in regulating the ecology of the ocean floor.