Possible wasting disease or thermal stress in loal sea cucumbers

[drbill]

Most of you are aware of the wasting disease that has decimated sea stars all up and down the West Coast of North America. Many of you have also seen high mortality in sea urchins here, most of which is probably due to thermal stress and a serious decline in a major food source (drift kelp).

Ruth Harris and I have been observing apparent wasting or death from elevated temperatures in sea cucumbers (Parastichopus) locally. I'm wondering if anyone else has been observing this as well? The individuals I've seen have had their brown dermis (skin) layer either stripped off or wasted away.

Here are images of a lobster feeding on the carcass of one such sea cucumber. You can see the brown dermis is almost completely gone.

 

[geoff w]

I haven't seen any evidence of this along the north LA county coast yet, but thanks for the heads up. For the most part I haven't really seen much if any evidence of the starfish wasting lately either, and my unscientific opinion is that I'm seeing a few more starfish than earlier this year. I know what to look for now and will keep an eye out on dives

 

[drbill]

Interesting that you'd be seeing more sea stars this year with all the warm water, although the mainland does tend to be a bit chilly. Now that I've resumed day diving (after the hordes of snorkelers are mostly gone), I have seen very few sea stars out here. So far only a few sea cucumbers that suggest possible wasting, but when Ruth said she had seen some too that began to worry me.

 

[geoff w]

Sounds like you need a mainland dive the middle of next week to conduct comparative research! In the past few weeks, the water has actually been the warmest of the year so far, at least up my way

 

[dytis-sm]

Dr. Bill, did you check with the Reefcheck people? They survey for sea cucumbers and they are probably the right source to compare notes. On my last survey with them a couple of weeks ago I did see a few that looked fairly normal. The two places we surveyed and had sea cucumbers were Leo Carillo State Beach and White Point(PV).

 

[drbill]

Good idea. I will contact ReefCheck. My observations are primarily from Long Point south on Catalina, the region that has the warmest water in the Channel Islands. I did see a few that were buried deep in the rocks on my dive yesterday and did not notice any wasting on the exposed portions of their bodies.

 

[Divebum Don]

As well Bill, the Catalina Marine Society CMSmagazinearchive They may have some thermograph data. I know you work with Craig, Mike, Karen, Jim, Etc... I miss the Island:cool2:...

 

[TSandM]

Jan Kocian is seeing it here in the PNW.

 

[geoff w]

I still haven't seen any sea cucumber wasting here, but this past weekend all the starfish at Leo Carrillo state beach seem to have gone from healthy to widespread evidence of the wasting disease. Two weeks prior, all looked healthy, and not really much evidence of the wasting disease since early April. The water temperature was slightly warmer. I've reported it

 

[drbill]

Here's a more recent image of a Parastichopus sea cucumber that may have the wasting disease. I haven't seen it in the species of Holothuria sea cukes in our waters.