MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Jean-Louis Santini, AFP – “Starfish have been mysteriously dying by the millions in recent months along the US west coast, worrying biologists who say the sea creatures are key to the marine ecosystem.

Scientists first started noticing the mass deaths in June 2013. Different types of starfish, also known as sea stars, were affected, from wild ones along the coast to those in captivity, according to Jonathan Sleeman, director of the US Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.

‘The two species affected most are Pisaster ochraceus (purple sea star or ochre starfish) and Pycnopodia helianthoides (sunflower sea star),’ he wrote in a statement in December.

The sunflower sea star is considered among the largest starfish and can span more than a meter in diameter.

The most commonly observed symptoms are white lesions on the arms of the sea star. The lesions spread rapidly, resulting in the loss of the arm. Within days, the infection consumes the creature’s entire body, and it dies.

Entire populations have been wiped out in Puget Sound off the coast of Washington state, in the Salish Sea off Canada’s British Columbia as well as along the coast of California. The mortality rate is estimated at 95 percent.

Scientists who have spent decades studying the local ecosystem have yet to identify the cause.

‘What we currently think is likely happening is that there is a pathogen, like a parasite or a virus or a bacteria, that is infecting the sea stars and that compromises in some way their immune system,’ Pete Raimondi, chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told AFP.

Then, the creatures become more susceptible to bacteria which is ‘causing a secondary infection that causes most of the damages that you see.'” Read more.

Don’t Eat The fish! They’re Contaminated – “Polar bears along the coast of Alaska are suffering from fur loss and open sores. Starfish on the West Coast are disintegrating into piles of white goo and Pacific Herring are bleeding from their gills and eyes. Despite this knowledge, the government refuses to announce how much radiation is infecting our atmosphere. It should be obligatory that this information is released regardless of the dosage present; because the list goes on. The population of sockeye salmon from Alaska is at a historic low, thousands of birds are dropping dead in Oregon and sea lions along the California coast are experiencing an unusual mortality rate, according to Peak Oil. All this horrible death and disease to our marine animals can be indirectly linked to the explosion of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant.” Read more.