Parvovirus May Be Cause Of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome - Reuters
Scientists investigating a huge die-off of starfish along North America's Pacific coast have identified a virus they say is responsible for a calamitous wasting disease that has wiped out millions of the creatures since it first appeared last year.
The scientists said on Monday they identified the pathogen as the Sea Star Associated Densovirus, or SSaDV, after ruling out other possible culprits including certain bacteria, protozoans and fungi.
More than 20 species of starfish, also called sea stars, from southern Alaska to Baja California are dying from a wasting disease that causes white lesions to appear before the animal's body sags, ruptures and spills out its internal organs.
"They basically fall apart into a pile of goo on the bottom of the seafloor," said Cornell University biological oceanographer and microbial ecologist Ian Hewson, who led the study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. SSaDV is a parvovirus, a tiny form of virus that can cause illness in animals and people.
The researchers detected it in older starfish samples, museum specimens from as early as 1942. They said it may have been present at low levels for years and only recently became a large-scale threat due to some kind of viral mutation, environmental trigger, starfish overpopulation or other factor.
EDIT
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/72494
= new reply since forum marked as read
But I was assured - on this very site - it was all that Japanese beta radiation that was melting them!!1! Why are you lying to us??!? What are you trying to hide??!!11!
What could it be, I wonder ?
pH ?
Maybe the sea stars fell for the hoax of global warming ? 
