Sea stars, or starfish, http://www.care2.com/causes/how-one-congressman-is-bringing-hope-to-dying-starfish.html are famous for their healing powers (they can regrow their own amputated limbs!) and their central disc. Today, they're at the center of "the largest wildlife die-off ever recorded" -- some populations have disappeared by 95 percent -- http://phys.org/news/2015-12-climate-american-starfish.html and scientists are racing to save them. It's a Starfish Catastrophe American scientists recently met in Seattle, reports King 5 News, http://www.king5.com/story/tech/science/environment/2016/01/19/sea-star-die-off-worst-ever-recorded/79016818/ to discuss this truly catastrophic event where millions of sea stars have died. We should all be concerned about this historic die-off. Sea stars do more than just decorate our oceans. They are predators and a …show more content…
There have been three major waves of the disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_star_wasting_disease the 1972 plague, the 1978 plague and the 2013 plague. 3. Warmer Temperatures: It's no secret that our planet is warming up, http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/265051-2015-was-second-hottest-year-on-record-in-the-us and it's progressively getting hotter every year. Unfortunately, there's very compelling evidence to support that more starfish die in warmer temperatures. Drew Harvell, a biologist at Cornell University, explains http://phys.org/news/2015-12-climate-american-starfish.html the link this way: "There are components that certainly track with temperature... We think the magnitude in our wasters is due to temperature. We know that under warmer conditions, they die