WW: Starfish report, 2019

(Well, here we are again, on the same beach as last year. This summer I had difficulty finding many Evasterias; total count was only two. However, I did find an adolescent Pisaster ochraceus (photo above), which is heartening. Meanwhile, Dermasterias, which is resistant to the starfish plague, continues much in evidence. I didn't find many Henricia either, but they're not technically intertidal, and the tide wasn't as low as last year. And as in the past, not a single Pycnopodia, profuse in these quiet North Coast waters when I was a kid.

The lack of Evasterias compared to recent post-plague years, and the small size of those found, continue to sound a knell for this species. However, there remain two slim hopes.

First, the very low census still adds up to more than Pycnopodia , now apparently extinct here.

And second, though it appears that all our young Evasterias still succumb within a year or two to the plague, so far a handful are still turning up on the tidelands each summer.

So a healthy breeding population must survive in deeper, colder water. With any luck they'll outlive the virus, and eventually repopulate the bay.)