VANCOUVER — A mass die-off off of sea stars in British Columbia's Howe Sound appears to be causing a significant change in the ecology of the waterway north of Vancouver.
Marine ecologists at Simon Fraser University say they've measured remarkable changes in a sea plant and a marine animal since the sea stars developed a wasting disease and died by the millions in the summer of 2013.
Ecologists Jessica Schultz and Isabelle Cote say since then the population of green sea urchins has quadrupled in Howe Sound.
At the same time, kelp — the sea urchin's favourite meal — has declined by 80 per cent.
The sunflower star, one of the sea stars most affected by the wasting disease, was a voracious predator of the sea urchins.
Cote says the upheavals in the food chain are a sign of an ecological domino effect.
"It's a stark reminder that everything is connected to everything else. In this case, the knock-on consequences were predictable, but sometimes they are not," she says.
Schultz, Cote and fellow researcher Ryan Cloutier say there is still no sign of recovery among Howe Sound sea stars, and until that species returns nothing will check the sea urchin's feast on kelp.
