Mystery disease turns starfish to goo as 95% of the sea creatures are wiped out off parts of the West Coast

Wasting disease: The star fish's arms disintegrate after white lesions have spread over their limbs

A record number of starfish are dying as a result of a disease which wastes away their arms and turns them into 'goo'.
The sea creatures are falling victim to the mystery condition which causes white lesions to grow along their
limbs, before they disintegrate.
It has wiped out 95 per cent of the animals in some tide pools along the West Coast of America and scientists are struggling to find a way to stop the spike in deaths, because they do not know what is causing the deadly epidemic.
In August, marine biologist Jonathan Martin noticed dead starfish, which looked like their arms had been chopped off, while he was scuba-diving. 
He swam along the water bed, analysing the disintegrated sea stars, before filming their wasting bodies and posting the video on Facebook.
Dead starfish, with missing arms, have since turned up along the coast of the United States from Alaska down to Southern California, and scientists believe sea creatures as far south as Mexico could be at risk.Pete Raimondi, chairman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, told CBS News: 'What's happening? We don't know yet. We think it's bacterial.
'We also know that it can move between species. They get a wound and the bacteria will just kind of eat the species away.'
In the past, researchers have linked sea star wasting disease outbreaks to rising ocean temperatures.

Decapitated: The condition causes the sea creatures to look as though their limbs have been chopped off

The largest number of deaths occurred along the coast of Southern California from 1983-1984, during an El Nino year, where the temperature of the Pacific Ocean increases.
'We're not having an El Nino year this year. That's what's really troublesome about this,' Raimondi added.
Until researchers can properly map the outbreak, Mr Raimondi added, it will be difficult to determine the cause, or an underlying link between the regional outbreaks.
So far, the disease has killed 95 percent of certain species in some tide pools. The overall population numbers in the millions, but Mr Ramondi said it was troubling to see such a large percentage die off in an individual tide pool.

Expansion: There has been an infestation of jellyfish in oceans around the world causing an increase in the number of people being stung on holiday

As sea stars die out, many ecosystems of other animals will also be affected with the population of creatures like mussels expanding.

Now marine biologists are trying to find out the root causes of the mystery disease, so researchers can start to determine how to control the outbreak.
While star fish are decreasing in numbers, scientists around the world are reporting a boom in the number of jellyfish, resulting in more tourists being stung while on holiday.
In Hawaii there it has been reported that between 800 or 1,000 people have been stung in a day, while in Spain or Florida, up to half a million people have been affected during a spike in the population.
The massive increase in numbers has reportedly caused the deaths of thousands of farmed salmon in Ireland and caused a nuclear plant in Sweden to temporarily shut down.
Dr. Lisa-Ann Gershwin, who has recently written a book on jellyfish blooms, told CNN the increasing activity was because of overfishing and changing water temperatures.