A disease scientists are calling “spooky” is dismembering a record number of starfish and then melting their tissue until the sea creatures are turned into slime. It’s called “star wasting disease” and has never spread as widely as it is now along the West Coast. In one tide pool in Santa Cruz, California, 90 to 95 percent of the starfish community has been wiped out. Marine biologists and ecologists are launching an investigation this week in an attempt to identify the source of the outbreak.
