A starfish is born: hope for key species hit by gruesome disease

US team succeeds in captive breeding of sunflower sea stars and aims to reintroduce them to the wildScientists in a San Juan Island laboratory in Washington state have successfully raised sunflower sea stars, or starfish, in captivity for the first time, in an effort to help save these charismatic ocean creatures from extinction.Sunflower sea stars, whose colours vary widely, can grow as big as a bicycle wheel and have about 20 legs. They were once abundant in coastal waters from Alaska to Mexico, but since 2013, nearly 6 billion of these nowcritically endangered animals have died from agruesome wasting diseaselinked to warming seas. Populations have plummeted by more than 90%.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Marine life Oceans Environment Conservation Wildlife US news World news Climate change Animals Science Biology Source Type: news