We did not see a single sea star in the Kachemak-side tide pools, and boulders we visit each year all looked a little vacant, with a lot of empty, critter-free space.

Sea Star Wasting Disease has caused sea stars to die off since 2013. As of 2018, there are still no sea stars on Bishops Beach in Homer.

Biologist Jackie Hilderling says four years of decline in B.C.'s sea star population is due to climate change warming local waters and making the animals susceptible to sea star-associated densovirus.

Sea star wasting syndrome, or disease as it has become known, hit Kachemak Bay hard in 2016, killing about 90 percent of sunflower and true star populations.

Kachemak Bay has witnessed massive die-offs of sea stars, murres and razor clams. Whats going on?

Experts say a wasting disease epidemic has decimated about 95% of the sunflower sea star population from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. Without sea stars to keep them in check, sea urchins are causing a troubling decline in kelp forests that provide food and shelter.