How 5 billion sea stars died and what we can do to save them

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Since 2013, researchers have
noticed a drastic decline up to 90%

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decline in sea stars starfish along
the west coast of North America.

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Nobody really knew what was going on.

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There was this idea of a sea star
wasting disease where they would

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just waste away and just like,
kind of like tear apart underwater.

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And the ramifications were drastic.

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We saw an increase in sea urchin
populations because of a decrease in

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the sea stars, as well as a decrease
in kelp because urchins eat kelp.

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There are huge ramifications in
finding out what has caused the

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decline of the sea stars and what
we need to do to bring them back.

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Luckily, researchers have figured out what
the actual cause of the sea star wasting

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disease and now we're hoping to be able to
fix it and get that ecosystem back intact.

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We're gonna talk about it all
today on this episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another exciting episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and
this is the podcast where you find

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out what's happening with the ocean,
how you can speak up for the ocean,

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and what you can do to live for
a better ocean by taking action.

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On today's episode, we're gonna be
talking about sea stars, including the

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drastic 90% decline in sea stars since
2013 because of sea star wasting disease.

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It's a disease that basically broke down
sea stars across the west coast of North

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America, and it caused a lot of panic.

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There was people running what's going on.

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During that time, we saw El Nino
and the blob, which was, you know,

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El Nino caused a lot more sea
surface temperature increased.

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There was the blob, which was
like a blob of water that was just

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heating up from the North Pacific.

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And it was coming down towards the mid
Pacific, I guess mid Eastern Pacific.

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And people said, well,
maybe it's because of that.

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Maybe there's something in the water
that's increasing because of this

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increase in temperature and it's
causing like a lot of the parts of the

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ecosystem to kind of go out of whack.

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So it's not surprising that sea stars
would actually have a problem and

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maybe they're just melting away.

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We didn't really know.

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Scientists were trying
to figure out for years.

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And it has come to my
attention that they've actually

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figured out what's happened.

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They've identified a bacterium, and
I'm gonna try and pronounce this

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bacterium, but we'll see what happens.

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Vibrio pectenicida strain, FHCF-3 as the
cause of the sea star wasting disease.

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SSWD that has been devastating
sea star populations along North

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America's west coast since 2013.

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So like I said before, the disease
led to the loss of up to 90% of the

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Sunflower Sea Stars population equating
to over 5 billion individuals leaving

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the species critically endangered.

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This is the thing, what happens when you
have climate change, when you have other

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factors that are cumulative that can
be very hospitable to other organisms.

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This bacteria potentially has been doing
really well in higher temperatures.

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It's been proliferating and it's
been going all over the West coast

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of North America, and affecting
the Sunflower Sea Star population,

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making them critically endangered.

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Like, think about taking 5 billion
individuals out of a population.

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It's critically endangered.

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We're lucky that it had
such a high population.

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It didn't go extinct.

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So researchers confirmed the causation by
isolating the bacterium from their fluid.

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So it's almost like their blood
fluid, their sea star blood,

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essentially what we call it.

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And fulfilling Koch's Postulates
via controlled infection study.

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So this is just the method that they used.

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And the consequences have included
a dramatic surge in sea urchin

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populations, which has in turn led to
the destruction of kelp forests, a key

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marine habitat for, you know, supporting
biodiversity, coastal protection, carbon

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sequestration, and local communities.

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Now, just to kind of take it
out a little bit and, look at

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an overview of a kelp forest.

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Kelp forest are aquatic plants that grow
underneath the surface of the ocean.

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And they stem, like all
the way from the bottom.

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It could be like a
hundred meters, 200 meter.

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I don't know even know
if it goes that far.

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But it goes pretty far up.

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It's secured at the bottom of
the ocean, and then it goes

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all the way up to the top.

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And you know the forests are dense forests
where you have a lot of cover for animals.

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And if you go to any aquarium, Monterey
Bay Aquarium, you can go to the Toronto

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Aquarium here locally here in Toronto, and
you can see these kelp forests and what it

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creates, the environment that it creates,
all these fish and invertebrates are

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almost like made to be hidden
within this kelp forest.

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And it's something that is
extremely important to a lot of

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fisheries along the West coast.

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you know, just sustainable populations
and making ecosystems, structure

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and security along that coastline.

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There's a lot of stuff that's benefit
to that and I remember in university.

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I'm going back to my university
days 'cause my daughter's going to

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the same university this year that
I went to, my wife went to, and I'm

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going back to my university days
and I'm remembering population of

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Ecology and learning about food web
systems and how when you take out a

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important animal within a species, within
a food web, that it affects the rest

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of the food web and it can affect the
dynamic and the balance of that ecosystem.

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And what I learned was, you know, urchin,
sea otter and kelp forest relationship.

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And so when the sea Otter population
dwindled, and it went to critically

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endangered back in the 1800s
and 1900s and there weren't

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any protections for sea otters.

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The kelp forest declined because
the sea urchin population increased.

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Well, now we've had some success in
seeing the sea otter population increase.

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And over time we've seen the sea
urchin population decrease a little

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bit, but unfortunately, what we
didn't really know is the amount of

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effect of sea stars on sea urchins.

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They also eat sea urchins, and the
disappearance of these sea stars have

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shown that there's still an increase,
even though the sea Otter population

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is doing fairly well or doing better.

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Maybe not at what it once
was, but doing better.

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Even with the sea otter population
there, they're not eating enough sea

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urchins to control the level predation
of sea urchins on kelp forests.

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So I hope this is not too confusing
'cause I'm using a lot of things here.

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I should probably have a diagram maybe
when I get paid to do these types of

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videos, we can put a diagram together.

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but essentially what happens is even
though you have sea otter population

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doing better than what it was.

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You don't have that sea star population,
and they both predate on sea urchins.

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Now the sea urchin population is
increasing a little bit and affecting

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the kelp forest population, which affects
so many other species within the west

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coast of North America that it becomes a
negative effect on the entire west coast

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and affects, you know, coastline security.

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It affects biodiversity, it affects
fisheries, affects a lot of things.

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and having, you know, cumulative
effects like climate change and maybe

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bad management of fisheries in certain
situations and other things, and just

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coastal development and so forth.

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You have problems.

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So the fact that we have diagnosed
the problem that's happening with the

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Sunflower Sea stars and other sea star
populations, we can do better now.

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So with the pathogen now identified.

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Efforts can shift towards a targeted
recovery such as captive breeding,

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probiotic treatments, and monitoring
environmental drivers like warming

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waters that influence disease outbreaks.

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So now we know when the water's warm,
we can actually detect how badly this

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bacterium will do, and we can start
looking at experiments like that.

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So graduate students, if you're
looking for a project, this would

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be amazing to do because you're on
the forefront, on the cutting edge

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of looking at how to manage this bacterium
and how to manage a critically endangered

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population and try and bring it back,
which seems to perforate quite a bit

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if it's healthy because there was 5
billion individuals that were killed

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and it's still critically endangered.

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So there's a big upside in
bringing these species back if

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we can control this bacterium.

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So that's the episode.

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I'd love to hear what you think about
this is the fact that it took us so long.

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Why did it take us so long?

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I'd love to hear your
questions or comments.

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Let me know in the comments below,
if you're watching this on YouTube.

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If you're listening to this on
the audio version, you can get

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in touch with me with two ways.

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You can go to speak up for
blue.com/contact and you can email me.

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Just fill out the contact page or if you
want to connect with me over Instagram,

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just DM me at how to protect the ocean.

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I would love to hear from you and if
you want to learn more about how you can

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better protect the ocean, don't forget.

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You can join the undertow at any time.

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We're coming up with this app.

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It's an online digital app to
essentially bring together people

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who want to do better for the ocean.

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So not only do we have this community
here, but it's also we have this community

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on this app that you can learn how and
be guided to connecting to the ocean.

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Be with a community that wants
to do better for the ocean.

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And essentially take part in
conservation projects or learn how to

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fund conservation projects, identify
by, you know, through vetted processes

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of what products to use and so forth.

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There's a lot of upsides, so go to
speak up for blue.com/join the undertow.

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I wanna thank you again for joining
me on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the True Nord Strong and free.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.