Dissolving starfish in the Puget Sound

[drbill]

I haven't been diving with anywhere near my normal frequency this year (only about 20 dives to date). We had reports of sea star wasting even here on the island. On my recent dives I have not seen near as many individuals of Pisaster giganteus as I would expect, but the ones I have seen appear to be healthy. Over my 45 years of diving Catalina and SoCal I've seen periods of very serious echinoderm wasting, usually associated with warm water episodes including El Ninos.

 

[uwxplorer]

That's indeed what the Science news bit is mentioning too. It is true that in hindsight, the water has been rather warm all past year and this one too...
Meanwhile PNAS felt they couldn't do less than have their own (short) news report on it (paywall after intro)

http://m.pnas.org/content/111/19/6855

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We had a massive die off around Palos Verdes last Fall and the water has been 2-3 degrees colder than the past five years. We had a few weeks in the upper 40s last month.

 

[uwxplorer]

Interesting local variability...

 

[Hank49]

We had a massive die off around Palos Verdes last Fall and the water has been 2-3 degrees colder than the past five years. We had a few weeks in the upper 40s last month.

Interesting. The White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) in shrimp is triggered by temperature. (one trigger anyway). Shrimp can be carriers of the virus but it doesn't manifest itself if temperatures stay above 28C. A bit like Herpes but as deadly as Ebola.
When the temperature drops below 27C or so the majority of the carriers die. Overnight.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Interesting local variability...

Laguna Beach usually has temperatures up to ten degrees warmer than Palos Verdes. With the relatively shallow shelf of Huntington Flats between Orange County and San Pedro the coastline doesn't get much cold water upwelling. In P.V. we have deep water near shore on the south side plus Santa Monica and Redondo Canyons a short distance from the beach. We had 48° for two weeks at Marineland a few years ago while Laguna had 64-66°.

 

[uwxplorer]

In P.V. we have deep water near shore on the south side plus Santa Monica and Redondo Canyons a short distance from the beach. We had 48° for two weeks at Marineland a few years ago while Laguna had 64-66°.

That's what I was thinking may happen, considering that off shore of PV is a blue water dive area (or rather, green water, in my case!).
Does the Catalina Marine Society have some recent data points to share, maybe?

 

[drbill]

Have been amazed at the temps you've been experiencing Phil. I think my coldest temp here all winter and spring was 56 F (although I had a 52 F bottom temp at 90 ft in August last summer!).

Did another dive yesterday in the park and found very few Pisaster giganteus sea stars out in the open, but a number of them well hidden in crevices. Interesting. They did look healthy.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

That's what I was thinking may happen, considering that off shore of PV is a blue water dive area (or rather, green water, in my case!).
Does the Catalina Marine Society have some recent data points to share, maybe?

The most recent updates are from last year. We placed thermographs at White Point Rock and in the sand under the Marineland platform. Unfortunately a squid boat fouled its net and dragged the platform eighty feet. I haven't found the thermograph yet. Jon Davies tied a couple thermographs to the bow of the Avalon. The large swells last month stirred the wreck quite a bit, but at least one is still there.
http://www.catalinamarinesociety.org/CMSContinentalarray.html

 

[DiverLaura]

The die off is picking up here in the Northwest. We are asking for all your eyes again underwater. The scientists i've been talking to think it may be related to the warmer temps now that spring is here. We are seeing high mortality in areas that were spared last fall, west side of the sound and north into the san juans. There has been minimal recruitment (babies) on our transects in Elliot bay.