Scientists now believe a virus is what is causing the disease that has killed millions of sea stars in the Pacific Ocean. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz, Cornell University, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium have found evidence that links the disease to a densovirus (which is a type of parvovirus that is found in invertebrates). The disease has caused sea stars from Alaska to Southern California to lose their limbs and eventually disintegrate. The sea star wasting disease is affecting at least 20 different species of sea stars, but is reportedly hitting the five-legged ochre sea stars, and the sunflower sea stars particularly hard.
