A mysterious disease that has plagued sea stars for more than a decade may have met its match in the fjords of British Columbia.
Sunflower sea stars discovered thriving in the frigid waters suggest that cooler temperatures provide protection from sea star wasting disease, or SSWD. The finding, reported in the April Proceedings of the Royal Society B, is a valuable clue about what causes SSWD in the first place, researchers say.
Sea star wasting disease has stumped scientists since the first big outbreak emerged in 2013 off North America’s Pacific coast. “We initially thought it was a virus, but went back on that, because the data was either