For decades starfish along the coasts have been dying in mass quantities, and scientists believe they’ve finally figured out why.

For decades, starfish along the coasts have been dying in mass quantities, and scientists believe they’ve finally figured out why.

They’ve identified a specific densovirus that’s capable of causing the several stages of decay experienced by the sea creatures before they finally waste away.

Once the pathogen takes hold, the starfish, or sea stars as scientists call them, begin to experience a bending and twisting of the legs.

That’s followed by the loss of all limbs and the eventual decomposition of the main body.

The affliction has been appropriately named starfish wasting syndrome.

In their search for a cause, the team took samples from both sick and healthy specimens and did a check for relevant harmful agents.

Once those were identified, DNA sequencing was performed.

That narrowed the field of possibilities and one strong candidate emerged.

It was introduced to test subjects and sure enough within less than 15 days they became sick and died.

Their study also revealed that sea stars have been carrying the virus since the 1940s, yet do now know why it has recently emerged as such as serious threat.

Theories of why that is include an over population of starfish making it easier for the virus to spread.