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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Sun May 8, 2016, 05:06 PM May 2016

Starfish babies return in droves following massive die-off



Droves of baby starfish are returning to California's shores after a wasting disease decimated whole populations of the creatures over the past two years along the West Coast.

Data collected by Oregon State University researchers show an unprecedented number of baby starfish, or sea stars, survived the summer and winter of 2015.

"Most of the adults—the larger animals—were gone, or at least a large fraction of them," Bruce Menge, an Oregon State marine biology professor who co-authored the report told KPCC. "And what we saw sort of in their place was literally thousands to probably millions of baby sea stars."

Menge believes the surge is due to the lack of adults. Fewer grown-up starfish means less competition for the limited food supply. Now that juveniles are gorging themselves, many more of them are living into the spring.

more
http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/05/08/60418/starfish-babies-return-in-droves-following-massive/
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Starfish babies return in droves following massive die-off (Original Post) n2doc May 2016 OP
I like sexy and weird stories like this. n/t mehneh May 2016 #1
Good to hear shenmue May 2016 #2
Yay baby starfish hordes!. ErikJ May 2016 #3
They said the Millenials are the largest cohort among humans, looks like the starfish are a leap jtuck004 May 2016 #4
This is great. DawgHouse May 2016 #5
Starfish babies? Android3.14 May 2016 #6
Thank goodness Crash2Parties May 2016 #7
 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
4. They said the Millenials are the largest cohort among humans, looks like the starfish are a leap
Sun May 8, 2016, 07:05 PM
May 2016

ahead of us.

Soon the planet we created will be killing off many more of those of us at the top of the food chain, then we can catch up to the starfish.

Crash2Parties

(6,017 posts)
7. Thank goodness
Tue May 10, 2016, 01:55 AM
May 2016

The West Coast ecosystem was near collapse. When the sea stars died off, nobody ate the sea urchins (something affected the sea otters & other mammals, too). Without sufficient predators, urchin numbers exploded and they stripped enormous areas of any sign of kelp. Without kelp, the abalone started starving off.

It's probably going to take another five years for a new balance to be built up, probably with some big swings back and forth in the meantime. I sure hope the new babies are resistant to the wasting disease.

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