The huge sea stars, which help conserve kelp beds by eating sea urchins, have been devastated by a wasting disease that is linked by scientists to climate change.

For years, researchers thought an infectious pathogen was behind sea star wasting disease. A new study found that multiple species of bacteria deplete oxygen from the water effectively suffocating sea stars. These microbes thrive when there are high levels of organic matter in warm water and create the low oxygen conditions.

Roughly 60 dead starfish were scattered on a stretch of beach about 1/4-mile long, showing potential signs of sea star wasting disease.

Sea star wasting disease (SSWD) observed near King Cove

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.

Approximately 700 dead mottled sea stars (Evasterias troscheli) found with appendages intact, which indicate that mortality event may be related to stormy weather.

Reports that the sea star population was rebounding appear to have been overly optimistic, says the Coastal Ocean Research Institute.

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.

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.

Sea star wasting disease, a type of densovirus, reduced the count of sea stars in Kachemak Bay from 180 last spring to a measly five this year.

Near MacDonald Spit, southern end of the Kenai Peninsula.

A starfish that did not appear healthy.

It causes legs to fall off and, ultimately, results in disintegration of the animals’ bodies. Climate change may be behind that disease, as the arrival of Pacific marine heat waves coincided with the disease outbreak, according to federal biologists.The sea star, with a range from Baja California to the Aleutians, would be the first sea star with an Endangered Species Act listing.