This week I will be taking a break from my blog series on traumatic brain injury to discuss possible climate change effects on our Oregon Coast and the entire West Coast. I had the opportunity to join my friend, Dr. Lindsay Aylesworth, on a volunteer surveying activity with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Reserves and Oregon State University at Otter Rock Marine Reserve, Oregon.
It was the first time I woke up at 4:55AM in morning in the last four years since my brain injury. We headed out to the Otter Rock Marine Reserve on a super low negative tide day. It was amazing, I had never been out that far or in the marine reserve before.
First off, Doctor Sarah Gravem gave an overview of the intertidal area. Oregon’s intertidal zone hosts 116 species of invertebrates, 71 species of algae, and 3 species of seagrass. She then explained how sea stars are the ‘great white shark’ of the intertidal zone. They serve as the apex predator helping to maintain a balanced ecosystem. I couldn’t believe these beautiful calm creatures were veracious eaters.
Sarah then explained the reason we were out surveying was due to a massive virus that almost made the sea stars extinct a couple years ago down the west coast and they are trying to determine how it effects the intertidal zone now. For example, what happens to the intertidal zone if there are too many mussels because there are fewer sea stars to eat them?
The team on Otter Rock Marine Reserve surveying intertidal zone.
Not many people realize back in 2013-2014 there was a massive virus epidemic that nearly wiped out the entire sea star population from Baja Mexico to Alaska. This wasting disease infects the sea star and causes it to develop lesions that dissolve their tissue and spread throughout their bodies. It often kills the invertebrates within a couple of weeks or even a matter of days. When lesions appear on the sea stars’ rays (the arms of the star fish), a resilient few sea stars may shed the limb before the disease reaches their vital organs and later regrow it, but unfortunately most ended up dying. More often, the sea stars’ extremities become gnarled and deformed as the wasting syndrome takes hold, and the organisms quickly disintegrate into a white mush.
Example of sea stars with wasting disease.
No one really knows why the wasting disease occurs but some scientists hypothesize climate change had something to do with it. From studies done in Oregon, it does not appear that the disease was triggered by climate change since it began when waters were colder than normal. However this is only for Oregon, as for Washington, California, Mexico and Alaska waters were warming. Other scientists still believe that climate change triggered the disease in those places. Additionally, after the outbreak climate change definitely played a role in the severity of the disease in Oregon. As this warming in our oceans continue to occur we are seeing changes in marine life and their ecosystem.
Additionally, we have the huge blob of trash floating out in the Pacific Ocean that may be wreaking some type of havoc on our marine habitat. Scientists are studying this to better determine what all this trash means to our marine habitat. We as citizens need to do a better job of ensuring we keep trash, sewage, chemicals and plastic out of our oceans.
Haley and Greg counting mussels, snails and starfish.
But I digress, now back to the surveying. Our goal was to count all the new mussels forming, the various snails and starfish that were in the intertidal zone. We then spent the next four hours counting, photographing and documenting what we could find in one meter and ½ meter quadrants.
For those of you living near Newport or in any Oregon Coast community you can be part of citizen science. One of ODFW’s collaborators, MARINe, uses citizen science to report where healthy and afflicted sea stars are being found. Anyone can download their datasheets, collect data, and then submit it online . If this sounds interesting, there are a few things to note before heading out to become doctors of the intertidal zone (check out full methods here).
Species identification is necessary so be familiar with the local species of sea stars. Size needs to be recorded so bring a ruler or something of known length as a reference. Review this post to familiarize with the types of sea star wasting symptoms. If you find there are diseased individuals remember to take a picture and send it to seastarwasting@googlegroups.com.
There is some good news though. Several baby sea stars have survived the wasting disease and are beginning to reproduce. Our hope is the population will come back. Oregon Public Broadcasting published a good story discussing the new baby boom.
We can all be better stewards of the intertidal zone. First, don’t pick up any creatures-feel free to touch but don’t move or remove. Second, follow the guidelines in the image below. Third, join the Newport Surfrider Chapter that does beach clean-ups, water quality checks and projects to save our ocean. Lastly, if you want to learn more about sea stars I have listed some great resources below that were shared with me by Taylor Ely a Sea Grant Scholar.
Encouraging the Minimalist Life 