Numerous Dead Mottled Sea Stars (Evasterias troschelii)

Observation by Kim Wickman:

While clam digging for a project, our R.A.S.O.R students noticed an abundance of dead starfish. We roughly counted 60+ dead starfish scattered on a small stretch of beach that was about 1/4-mile long. We also noticed a very pungent, rotten smell on the beach, much more so than what you would normally smell on low tide.

Melissa Miner with the University of California, Santa Cruz writes:

Some of those stars (they all look like the mottled star, Evasterias troschelii) do look like they might have the lesions and general tissue necrosis associated with sea star wasting disease (SSWD). It's always hard to know for sure though in situations where stars are stranded on a beach. The alternative is that they could have been dislodged by some other event (large waves?) and become stranded on the shore, and have since started to degrade. I will forward these photos to our team to get input from others. Thank you for sharing!

Comments from LEO Editors:

The Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) monitors the long term health of a variety of species in rocky intertidal habitats. MARINe maintains a map of locations where sea stars have shown signs of SSWD. According to this map, there has been an instance of SSWD on Wrangell Island, observed between 2013-2017.

LEO has also received two other observations of dead sea stars in Southeast Alaska, one occurring near Juneau and another near Kake. Other observations of SSWD have been made around Kachemak Bay and near King Cove. Erica Lujan