Stars falling across the coast

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Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Stars falling across the coast </h1>
                <h2><p>Sea stars are dying at unprecedented rates across the West Coast, due to an unknown cause. First reported three years ago on the shores of Olympic National Park, “sea star wasting syndrome” has impacted 20 different sea star species, including the world’s fastest and largest — the meter-wide sunflower star.</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Sea stars are dying at unprecedented rates across the West Coast, due to an unknown cause. First reported three years ago on the shores of Olympic National Park, “sea star wasting syndrome” has impacted 20 different sea star species, including the world’s fastest and largest — the meter-wide sunflower star.  The sick stars wither like deflated balloons; their arms fall off and walk away on their own. The epidemic could reshuffle the entire tidal food web, where sea stars have historically ruled as king predators. Scientists haven’t cracked the case, but they have some promising leads. Read today’s <a href="http://crosscut.com/2014/06/30/puget-sound/120763/when-stars-go-out-all-along-coast/?page=2&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Crosscut report by Eric Scigliano</a> for details. — E.W.</p>
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Sea stars are dying at unprecedented rates across the West Coast, due to an unknown cause. First reported three years ago on the shores of Olympic National Park, “sea star wasting syndrome” has impacted 20 different sea star species, including the world’s fastest and largest — the meter-wide sunflower star. The sick stars wither like deflated balloons; their arms fall off and walk away on their own. The epidemic could reshuffle the entire tidal food web, where sea stars have historically ruled as king predators. Scientists haven’t cracked the case, but they have some promising leads. Read today’s Crosscut report by Eric Scigliano for details. — E.W.

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi