The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest

Update March 2016

Thanks to the incredible support of our donors and of the many people in the region who love the ocean, SeaDoc's The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest has sold fantastically well in its first year in print.The book spent 10 weeks on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association nonfiction bestseller list. It was also the #1 bestseller at our local Orcas Island bookshop, Darvill’s Books. (It sold 582 copies last year, more than double the number of copies sold of the second place book.)

The book has fulfilled our vision to help thousands of people see the beauty of the Salish Sea and join in efforts to protect and care for it.

Thank you to all of the people who helped underwrite the book and to everyone who bought a copy. And if you don’t have a copy, you can find one at your local bookstore or anywhere books are sold.

The Salish Sea region is an ecological jewel straddling the western border between Canada and the United States, connected to the Pacific Ocean primarily through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There, lush and mossy old-growth forests meet waters with dazzlingly-colored anemones and majestic orcas.

SeaDoc's new book, The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest by Audrey DeLella Benedict and Joseph K. Gaydos (Sasquatch Books; $24.95; March 2015), combines a scientist's inquiring mind, dramatic color photographs, and a lively narrative of compelling stories. This is the first book of its kind to describe the Salish Sea, whose name was not even officially recognized until 2008. One of the world’s largest inland seas, the Salish Sea contains 6,535 square miles of sea surface area and 4,642 miles of coastline. Fashioned by the violent volcanism of the Pacific Rim of Fire, plate tectonics, and the sculptural magic wrought by Ice Age glaciers, the Salish Sea is a unique ecosystem home to thousands of different species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and macro-invertebrates.

Amongst breathtaking color photography, The Salish Sea takes a look at the region’s geology, fauna, and history, and ends with hope for the protection of its future. The reader is left with a sense of wonder for this intricate marine ecosystem and the life that it sustains.

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Video by Colin Sternagel of Joe Gaydos giving a book talk

About the authors

Audrey DeLella Benedict is a biologist, a writer, and a passionate advocate for the conservation of the global ocean and Arctic and alpine environments the world over. She is founder and director of Cloud Ridge Naturalists, a nonprofit natural history educational organization now in its fourth decade. She is currently a member of the board of the SeaDoc Society and served for nearly a decade as a trustee for the Colorado chapter of The Nature Conservancy, from which she received the prestigious One Conservancy Award in 2003 for her work in Ecuador. Audrey splits her time between her home at 9,000 feet along the Colorado Front Range and her off-grid cottage on San Juan's Frost Island.

Joseph K. Gaydos is Chief Scientist for the SeaDoc Society, a marine science and conservation program focused on the Salish Sea. He is a licensed wildlife veterinarian and has a PhD in wildlife health. For over a decade he has been studying the fish and wildlife of the Salish Sea.

Interviews with the authors

• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound interviewed Joe Gaydos and Audrey Benedict about the book. You can read the interview here.
• Joe was interviewed on KEXP's Sustainability Segment. Listen here or on iTunes. "The longer you look at a tidepool, the more you see."
• Joe was interviewed by KSER Radio in Everett for their Sound Living segment and by KTPZ in Port Townsend in their Nature Now segment.
• On June 1, Joe was interviewed by Terry Moore of CFAX in Vancouver, BC. The interview is on SoundCloud and begins about 36 minutes in. Listen.
• Also in Canada, Joe and Audrey were interviewed by CBC Radio The Early Edition with Rick Cluff, on CJSF Radio Endeavors, by Joseph Planta on The Commentary.ca, and were on live television on the Global News Noon News Hour with hosts Lynn Colliar and Jay Durant.
• The Vancouver Sun did a nice interview with Joe and Audrey in conjunction with their trip to Canada for World Oceans Day.

Book events

Authors Audrey Benedict and Joe Gaydos appeared across the region during April and May. Watch the video above to see the talk given at Third Place Books in the Seattle area, or watch the joint celebration of World Oceans Day hosted by the Georgia Strait Alliance and the Vancouver Aquarium.

Video of event at Vancouver Aquarium:

(Kevin Campion's film about the Salish Sea starts about 20 minutes in. Joe and Audrey's talk starts about 57 minutes in.)

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Where to buy

The book is available at local independent bookstores and online. ISBN 978-1570619854.

Book reviews

SEA-media.org writes, "In just 148 pages, Benedict and Gaydos have captured the essence of the Salish Sea."

Readers learn about its nature and biology, geology and chemistry, animals, plants, and microorganisms. They learn of its Coast Salish past and its fishing, industrial, recreational, city and town present, and they learn of peoples’ place in its ecosystem. As beauty and perspective and appreciation flow off the pages into the minds of readers, a key objective of the authors is achieved: to connect people with their home.

The Vancouver Sun praised the book for being a "Richly-illustrated book [that] provides insight into the wonders of area."

The Salish Sea is a feast for the eyes, a high-quality publishing effort rich in glossy colour photos and fascinating biological information that is likely to surprise even someone well-versed in our marine waters.

Seattle Magazine featured the book in their March 2015 issue:

The new book The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest (Sasquatch Books, $24.95) looks at these local waters through a scientific lens, illustrating the region’s unique geology (thanks to glaciers, plate tectonics and volcanoes) and vibrant marine ecology. Written by biologist Audrey DeLella Benedict with Joseph K. Gaydos, chief scientist for the SeaDoc Society (an Orcas Island–based conservation group focused on the Salish Sea), the book pairs bright, bold, photographs with fascinating facts about local sea creatures. (Did you know that the Salish Sea is home to the world’s largest species of barnacle, octopus and burrowing clam?)

Cascadia Weekly writes:

With every page studded with stunning photographs, this book is perfect for simply curling up and looking at the pictures. Bonus that the informative text by Audrey DeLella Benedict is parsed out in easy-to-ingest sections, science made interesting and relevant. Zoology, botany, past and present geology, anthropology, and issues related to the region’s economy are covered, with the emphasis always on species interdependency and teaching about the importance of keeping this ecosystem healthy for all its inhabitants.

The Bellingham Herald says:

I’ve saved the best for last – the book’s inclusion of nearly 200 color images from more than four dozen photographers, including Art Wolfe and neurologist/underwater photographer Marc Chamberlain. These enhance and inform the text more eloquently than I can describe – they are stunning illustrations of the magical place we call home.

The Islands' Sounder says:

From the icy summit of Mount Baker to mudflats of Fidalgo Bay to giant basking sharks of the deep to the alien-esque egg-yolk jellyfish, “The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest” reveals a vast world that is hard to comprehend.

Christian Martin writes in Cascadia Weekly,

"Through maps, charts, satellite imagery, nature photography and writing, Benedict and Gaydos concoct an engaging presentation of the natural history of our “jewel of the Pacific Northwest.” Their mantra of “know, connect, protect and restore” is a hopeful way forward in to a challenging future.

Sharon Wooton wrote in the Everett Herald,

The book offers the bizarre and beautiful, alien shapes and streamlined bodies, the invisible and obvious, swimmers and flyers and floaters, endangered and countless, mud flats and forests, orcas and dying sea stars.

The High Country News writes,

Dozens of gorgeous color photographs reveal its intricate beauty, and the book ends with a ringing call to action and a vision for protecting the region. This volume itself is a step toward that goal: All the royalties from its sale will be donated to the Puget Sound-based marine conservation center, the SeaDoc Society.

Photographer Max Waugh writes,

[The book is] an eye-opener for those who think the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest don't house the same level of biodiversity as more well-known areas of the globe... From cover to cover, the volume is filled with bold, bright images showing off the amazing scenery and rich biodiversity of the region.

How to keep killer whales out of oil spills (Exxon Valdez anniversary)

Photo Credit: kckellner via Compfightcc

Imagine if you woke up one day and parts of your town were coated in a hard-to-see but highly-toxic chemical. How would you know what to areas to avoid, where to find safety, or even which grocery stores had non-contaminated food? For humans the answer is signs, police tape, announcements on the radio, and breathless disaster reporting on the television.

But for marine mammals the techniques are a little different.

25 years ago today, the Exxon Valdez spilled tens of millions of gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound.

Back before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, people thought killer whales would know better than to swim into an oil spill.

Turns out they were wrong. Many individuals in the two pods of orcas that use Prince William Sound, pods AB and AT1, had direct contact with the spilled oil. The pods suffered large population losses in the years following the spill. Twenty-five years later the AB pod has started to recover, but scientists think the AT1 pod, with only 7 members left, will soon go extinct.

So how do you keep killer whales out of oil spills?

This was a question SeaDoc sought to answer back in 2007. We partnered with NOAA to bring together a group of killer whale experts and spill response professionals to discuss how the Salish Sea's resident and transient killer whales could be protected. Even though 18 years had passed since the Exxon Valdez event, the Northwest Area Contingency Plan did not include a plan for dealing with killer whales.

Over two days, the workshop participants discussed the effects of oil on cetaceans, killer whale mortality from the Exxon Valdez event, permit issues, risk assessments, response coordination, availability of equipment, pre- and post-event monitoring, and techniques for hazing animals to keep them away from oiled areas.

The result is a much higher level of preparedness to save whales' lives in the event of a catastrophic spill. The response plan for killer whales has been incorporated into the current Northwest Area Contingency Plan. Responders will have techniques and equipment ready to use. Of course, it's an open question how effective these techniques will be in any particular spill. It will depend a lot where the spill takes place and how close any killer whales are. But the planned out strategy will certainly be more effective that ad-hoc tactics pulled together in the middle of a crisis.

SeaDoc's work on killer whales and oil spills is a good example of how we bring people together to solve tough issues, especially issues that involve both sides of the international border that splits the Salish Sea.

Interested in learning more? Read the meeting notes from the 2007 workshop.

Also, see NOAA's page on oil spill response and killer whales, and a 3/24/2014 report from KUOW's Ashley Ahearn: EarthFix Conversation: 25 Years Later, Scientists Remember The Exxon Valdez.

Video: a Harbor Porpoise says hello

Harbor Porpoises are the smallest cetacean (whale or dolphin) in the Salish Sea. They're also the only year-round cetacean residents. Even the "Southern Resident" population of killer whales spends much of the year outside of the Puget Sound / Georgia Basin area. Because they're here year-round, studying them reveals information about what toxins and diseases are in the water. Usually we don't see much of harbor porpoises—they have only a short fin that hardly breaks the water when they breathe—but viewed from underwater you can see how curious and intelligent they are.

This video was filmed during the SeaDoc Society's March 2014 board meeting and retreat, which took place at the Vancouver Aquarium.

How to participate in the Surf Smelt rulemaking process

Quick facts

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is taking comments on smelt fishing rules until April 11, 2014

SeaDoc has prepared a fact sheet about smelt in the Salish Sea.

We encourage you to use the available data on smelt to form an opinion about smelt fishing and to share your conclusions with the Commission.

SeaDoc is focused on identifying problems in the marine ecosystem and then using science to help find solutions.

Recently we were able to provide some important data on some very important fish: Surf Smelt. Now these data on the recreational harvest of smelt, along with other information, are being used by the general public and fisheries managers to make an important decision about Surf Smelt harvest in Washington.

Surf Smelt are one of 10 species of small schooling fishes that are critical for turning energy from plankton into fat and energy to feed larger fish (like salmon and lingcod), marine birds, and marine mammals.

Also, they are one of the few forage fish species for which there is a commercial and recreational fishery in Washington. Last year we funded a project to look at how many pounds of smelt are being harvested in the recreational fishery. It turns out, more than managers expected.

Now the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking to the public to decide if they should reduce the commercial or the recreational smelt fisheries (or both). The decision is not a scientific one, but it does use science. This is an opportunity for members of the public to help decide if they are comfortable with the current harvest, or if they are worried that the current harvest level is taking too many smelt away from the bigger fish they care more about, or from marine birds they like to watch.  Specifically, the Fish and Wildlife Commission is considering three options.

1. Leave things exactly as they are.
2. Reduce both commercial and recreational harvests.
3. Eliminate the commercial harvest and reduce the recreational harvest.

One of SeaDoc's primary goals is to make sure science gets off the shelf and gets used by decision makers and the public in making policy. We've done the science. Now it's time for it to get used.

SeaDoc is NOT an advocacy organization. We're not going to tell you what you should say in your comments, but we do want to encourage you use the available data to figure out your position and make your voice heard.

Check out our fact sheet on Surf Smelt in the Salish Sea. Use it to learn more about this important species and to learn how easy it is for you to be a part of this rule making process. Please share it with other people who are interested in the ecological and economic health of the Salish Sea.

Commenting is easy. You can do it online at the WDFW website. It can be as quick as filling out your name and choosing a preferred option, or you can include a comment of up to 1,000 characters. If you're interested in attending a public meeting and giving 3 minutes of in-person testimony, read our hints in the fact sheet.

Learn more about our smelt fishing study here.

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Photos courtesy of J. Gaydos.

Eelgrass disease study investigates vulnerability to Labyrinthula

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) plays a key role in the health of the Salish Sea ecosystem. It stabilizes sediments, reduces the impact of wave action, provides habitat, and is an important nursery and foraging area for multiple species, some of which are endangered. SeaDoc's involvement in eelgrass issues goes back to 2003, when we convened a meeting of eelgrass experts, resource managers, and land-use specialists to analyze the sudden disappearance of 35 acres of eelgrass in San Juan Island's Westcott Bay.

Eelgrass can be damaged by pollutants, by shading from docks and structures, and by physical damage from improper anchoring or badly placed moorings. It's also susceptible to disease, particularly from a slime mold-like organism called Labyrinthula zosterae. And it’s no small threat. This disease wiped out 90% of the eelgrass along the Atlantic coasts of North America and Europe in the 1930s.

We know that the organism is found in the Salish Sea, but the mere presence of a pathogen does not always mean disease. So what are the other factors? A recent publication by Maya Groner and numerous colleagues (supported in part by SeaDoc) used field surveys and experimental manipulations to find out how the age of eelgrass leaves impacts disease prevalence.

The upshot: mature beds and shallow eelgrass beds could be especially susceptible to outbreaks of wasting disease.

View the publication here.

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Banner photo from NOAA Photo Library via Flickr.

SeaDoc Science Advisor Peter Ross leads a new ocean pollution initiative

Photo: Neil Fisher and Vancouver Aquarium

The Vancouver Aquarium announced in February the launch of its new Ocean Pollution Science Program. The program will conduct critically important research on the sources and consequences of ocean pollution. Dr. Peter Ross, a scientist with 25 years of experience in marine pollution research, will lead the program. Dr. Ross is also a long-time SeaDoc Society Science Advisor. In that capacity he has helped shape SeaDoc's research agenda and our transboundary initiatives with Canadian scientists.

"Threats to ocean health include urban and industrial effluents, runoff from forestry and agriculture, oil and gas shipping and exploration, plastics and debris, and climate change," says Dr. Ross. "Understanding the nature and extent of these threats provide a crucial basis for policies and practices that will protect ocean health for future generations. Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean Pollution Science Program will conduct international-caliber scientific research on ocean pollution—and provide comprehensive and authoritative information for individuals, communities and countries." The Program will help inform partners and stakeholders in the science, government and private sectors on the health of our oceans.

"This is an area of study that must not be overlooked," says Dr. Ross. "By launching this program, we're meeting immediate scientific, conservation and education needs. The Aquarium is stepping up to the plate on an issue that is often vexing and complex but also worthy of dedicated research."

For more, visit the Ocean Pollution Science Program's web page at the Vancouver Aquarium site.

What killed orca L112?

Joe Gaydos conducting the necropsy by Sandy Buckley

What killed the 3-year-old killer whale that washed up in Southern Washington a couple of years ago? Joe Gaydos was one of 15 investigators who studied the whale to try to understand what happened to it. Their report was published February 25, 2014.

Joe was quoted in the Associated Press article about the report:

"This whale was killed from a blunt-force trauma, but [despite] every effort possible, we couldn't tell if it came from another ship or whale," said Joseph Gaydos, a co-author of the report and wildlife veterinarian with SeaDoc Society, a program of the Wildlife Health Center at the University of California, Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine. "The evidence doesn't support that it was a sonar episode or explosion."

See the full article by Phuong Le at the Seattle Times.

L112 Stranding Final Report

The Southern Resident Killer Whales Recovery Plan makes responding to standings of killer whales a priority. The Northwest Marine Mammal Stranding Network has nearly completed its investigation of the stranding involving southern resident L112 (Sooke) on Long Beach, Washington, February 11, 2012. Based on findings from the gross examination and the absence of conclusive histopathology or ancillary test results The Network team found that blunt force trauma was the primary consideration for the acute death of the animal. Weather and sea surface data for coastal Oregon and Washington, and drift patterns for the Columbia River plume suggested that L112 had likely been carried for some days in the Columbia River eddies or drifted from the south before being cast on Long Beach. Sonar and small underwater explosive activities were confirmed by the Royal Canadian Navy on February 4, 5, and 6, 2012 in Canadian waters off Vancouver Island and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca but no marine mammals were observed during the activities. The activities occurred too far to the north and downwind of the stranding location to be a consideration in the stranding.

You can find the final draft of the report and background documents at the NOAA website.

Salish Sea Ecosystem Map

The Salish Sea is a 17,000 sq. km. ecosystem consisting of the Puget Sound Basin (in the US) and the Georgia Basin (in Canada). Efforts to heal the Salish Sea depend upon good cross-border collaboration. Map: N. Maher

This image is available for download as a 5.8MB PDF.

Video: Gary Greene on Exploring the Salish Seafloor

You don’t go looking for lions on the Arctic tundra or for grizzly bears in the tropical rainforest – that is if you hope to find them. The topside world presents a wide variety of biomes inhabited by plants and animals adapted to survive in each special place. Our underwater world is no different. However, for people working to recover the Salish Sea, it’s been harder to protect threatened marine creatures and their critical underwater habitats simply because it’s so difficult to find them.

Beneath the surface of the Salish Sea lie a dazzling variety of habitats. We all know about kelp forests and eelgrass meadows and the riot of life they support, but did you know that we have huge “sand waves” that shelter vast schools of sand lance and provide foraging environment for birds like Tufted Puffins and Rhinoceros Auklets? Or that all of the various bottom features scientists have identified – glacial moraines, earthquake-generated rock piles, vertical ice-cut rock walls and mud-filled bays and sounds – each support their own collection of animals?

SeaDoc’s exciting new Tombolo Seafloor Mapping Laboratory is addressing real-time conservation needs by pinpointing Salish Sea habitats. When your goal is to protect important marine creatures like our threatened rockfish species, you can’t get there without a map.

Salmonella in wildlife: presentation at North American Veterinary Conference

At the 2014 North American Veterinary Conference, in Orlando, Florida, Joe Gaydos presented on Salmonella in wildlife. About 10% of the Salmonella outbreaks between 2006 and 2013 were caused by wild animals, and most of these were caused by reptiles and amphibians.

Salmonella infection can be prevalent in wild birds, and has been seen in many wild mammal species including white-tailed deer, raccoons, and river otters.

Relatively little is known about Salmonella in free-ranging marine mammals. It has been isolated from harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), a killer whale (Orcinus orca), sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis), northern elephant seals (mirounga angustirostris), California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus), and harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). Far more isolations have been made than actual documentation of disease. Salmonella Newport-associated septicemia has been documented in a harbor porpoise and a killer whale. Salmonella also has been isolated from marine birds such as Western gulls (Larus occidentalis). While one study found prevalence of Salmonella in 40% of California sea lion pups and 33% of northern fur seal pups on San Miguel Island, the prevalence in most marine wildlife populations is unknown but probably highly variable.

Download a copy of the paper: Salmonella in Wildlife by J. Gaydos

Photo Credit: mikebaird via Compfight cc

Joe Gaydos presents on river otter diseases at veterinary conference

At the 2014 North American Veterinary Conference, held in Orlando, Florida, Joe Gaydos presented a paper on diseases in river otters.

Diseases of River Otters, A Recovering Species. (PDF)

River otters were nearly eliminated over much of their home range, but have made comebacks. They can be found in freshwater habitats ranging from alpine lakes to rivers, streams, and swamps. From California to Alaska they sometimes occupy a nearshore marine habitat, where they play an important ecological role. They depend on fresh water for drinking.

River otters are host to various bacteria, viruses, fungi, and internal and external parasites. Some of these can cause disease in humans and domestic animals.

River otters are also sentinels to evaluate environmental contaminants including heavy metals, hydrocarbons and persistent organic pollutants.

The paper includes findings on successful anesthesia and capture methods.

Photo Credit: Chris Paul Photography via Compfight cc

Coastal cutthroat trout in the San Juan Islands

Coastal or sea-run cutthroat trout are freshwater fish that also move into the marine waters to feed and are an important recreational fishery in many parts of the Salish Sea. Many people don't think of the San Juan Islands when they think of cutthroat trout, but they were historically caught in the area. Long-standing residents recall a time when these rare fish were much more abundant. While recent work documented cutthroat trout in some streams in the San Juan archipelago, little is known about the current status of coastal cutthroat trout in this area.

Thanks to funding raised from private donors, the SeaDoc Society just awarded a grant to Long Live the Kings to analyze the abundance of coastal cutthroat trout in the San Juan Islands.

With collaborators at the Wild Fish Conservancy, Kwiáht, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Long Live the Kings also will analyze the genetics and spawn-timing characteristics of cutthroat trout from multiple streams in the San Juan Islands to determine if there are unique stocks within each of the multiple watersheds and whether coastal cutthroat trout in the San Juans are a unique stock complex. This work will provide the basis for determining and prioritizing appropriate recovery efforts and measuring results after recovery begins.

Video of juvenile and adult coastal cutthroat trout in streams in the San Juan Islands:

Photo: J. Glasgow, Wild Fish Conservancy

Sea Star Wasting Disease

Update January 21, 2016

SeaDoc recently spent 2 days at a sea star wasting disease summit hosted by the Seattle Aquarium.

Scientists from all over the US and Canada who are studying this disease came to share their research and learn from each other.

We still have a lot to learn about this disease, but data presented support: (1) this is an unsual mortality event, (2) the disease hits a wide range of sea star species, and (3) it affects different species of sea stars differently. Species that seem have been hit hard both in the wild and in captivity include the mottled star (Evasterias troschelii; pictured here), sunflower star (Pycnopodia heliantoides), spiny pink star (Pisaster brevispinus) and the ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus).

Joe Gaydos notes, "I'm impressed with and inspired by all of the great scientific minds working to unravel this mystery!"

Update November 17 2014

SeaDoc was among dozens of collaborators that recently published a paper linking a virus to sea star wasting disease. The paper showed that a virus was involved in the massive outbreak that, since June 2013, has killed millions of sea stars (including more than 20 different species) along the west coast of North America.Interestingly, the same virus was found in museum specimens of sea stars collected 72 years ago, suggesting that a mutation in the virus (as has been seen with closely related viruses) could have triggered the outbreak.

Work is continuing to better understand the other factors involved in this outbreak and how this massive loss of predators will reshape the marine ecosystem.

Understanding emerging threats to the health of our oceans is a key part of SeaDoc's work, and donations to SeaDoc make it possible.

Read the paper by Ian Hewson, et al.: http://www.seadocsociety.org/?p=2949

Earthfix covered the study, noting that this virus is different from all known viruses infecting marine organisms. (Another little-known fact: a drop of seawater contains about 10 million viruses.)

Read it: Scientists find out what's killing west coast starfish

Smithsonian Magazine also has a good article about the study and what it means.

Update October 2014

The San Juans were largely skipped by the wasting disease outbreak last fall, but this summer they were hit hard. Drew Harvell's lab at Friday Harbor Laboratories did investigations all summer long, and were able to watch as the disease swept across the archipelago. For example, the Eastsound waterfront area experienced approximately 95% wasting disease prevalence. Water temperature appears to play a large role in the disease. Researchers have also worked to identify genetic factors that appear to make it possible for some sea stars to survive the disease.Collaborators Morgan Eisenlord and Drew Harvell recently published a summary of their summer's work on sea star wasting disease in the San Juan Islands in the the Friday Harbor Labs Tide Bites newsletter. http://depts.washington.edu/fhl/tidebites/Vol14/index.html.

The article is well-worth a read, and here's a video from it:

Update June 2014

Scientists are closer to having an answer to what's causing the mortality outbreak in sea stars. Drew Harvell of Cornell University and Friday Harbor Labs is working with a team that has traced the cause.

Read the latest article from KUOW's EarthFix team about the current status of the outbreak. There's also a terrific video on that page featuring Drew Harvell.

Sea stars in various parts of the Salish Sea are experiencing a mass-mortality event. We're not sure of the cause, but we're working on it. (So are many other groups in the area.)

In October we looked for healthy and diseased sea stars during our dives for our new subtidal survey project. (See what else we found on those dives here.) During early November, we returned to two of the REEF monitoring sites from October where we saw the highest density of sea stars to see if sea star wasting disease has shown up since were were there last month. Fortunately we saw numerous sea stars and numerous species of sea stars and they all looked healthy. We will continue dives this weekend to look for more signs of disease.

Photos of diseased sea stars

Seastar expert Neil McDaniel, (www.seastarsofthepacificnorthwest.info) has graciously shared his photos showing the progression of the disease over a short period of a few weeks. This can give you an idea of what you're looking for. The before-and-after photos are pretty shocking. View the photos at Janna Nichols' SCUBA photo page.

Report sick and healthy sea stars

If you're a diver or a beach-walker and you see sea stars (healthy or diseased), report them at the Vancouver Aquarium's Sea Star Wasting Syndrome web page.

That page at the Vancouver Aquarium's website also has an overview of the outbreak.

Also see these media articles:

http://kuow.org/post/mass-starfish-die-may-be-headed-washington

http://www.king5.com/news/environment/Biologists-search-for-cause-of-sea-star-deaths-229408861.html

Vancouver Sun: scientists narrow in on the wasting disease (May 2014)

Video:

The Vancouver Aquarium made a time-lapse video of a sea star disintegrating. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/mjrp3Eckr-E

Audio:

Seattle Aquarium veterinarian Lesanna Lahner was interviewed on Science Friday on NPR on December 5, 2014.

Other items:

The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission posted a blog entry about how the Puyallup Tribe is tracking sea star wastage in the South Sound.

Scientist Drew Harvell and diver Laura James wrote a blog post for the Nature Conservancy about the outbreak. In it, Harvell, who is one of the scientists doing genetic research on possible disease vectors, makes the case for better funding of scientific investigations of disease in the ocean.

Page updated on December 10, 2014

Steller Sea Lions removed from Endangered Species List

October 2013: NOAA Fisheries is removing the eastern Distinct Population Segment of Steller sea lions from the list of threatened species, because it has met its recovery criteria as outlined in the 2008 Steller Sea Lion Recovery Plan and no longer meets the definition of a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This makes the eastern population of Steller sea lions the first species NOAA has delisted due to recovery since 1994, when the eastern North Pacific gray whale was taken off the list of threatened and endangered species. Read more: http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/stories/2013/10/10_23_13eastern_steller_sea_lion_delisting.html

KUOW: Mass Starfish Die-Off May Be Headed For Washington

John Ryan of KUOW reported on the efforts in the United States and Canada to understand a starfish die-off.

“Every population has sick animals,” said SeaDoc Society wildlife veterinarian Joe Gaydos, on a boat off Orcas Island between research dives. “Are we just seeing sick animals because we’re looking for it, or is it an early sign of a large epidemic that may come through and wipe out a lot of animals?”

The timing of this news coincided with SeaDoc's first year of monitoring subtidal fish and invertebrates at 10 sites in the San Juan Islands. This project, done in conjunction with REEF and Friday Harbor Labs, is a multi-year study to track understudied populations in the Salish Sea. It's exactly the kind of effort that's needed if we're to have the right data to understand mortality events like these.

Gaydos cautions, "Despite the headline, we're not certain that a mortality event is heading into Washington State. During our 120 dives we saw many more healthy animals than sick ones. We collected samples and they will be tested microscopically and for infectious agents and a parasites."

Read the complete text or listen to the piece as broadcast: http://kuow.org/post/mass-starfish-die-may-be-headed-washington

Also see this article on King5.com featuring the work of the Seattle Aquarium: Biologists search for cause of sea star deaths.

Joe Gaydos was also interviewed for an article on KVAL in Eugene, OR. http://www.kval.com/outdoors/Whats-causing-sea-stars-to-waste-away--232121291.html