‘It’s like a horror movie’: The fight against the mysterious illness causing starfish to melt

The Oregon Coast Aquarium has developed what it says is a novel treatment for the syndrome, which has been around for a decade, in the hopes of someday rescuing and restoring starfish numbers, writes Dino Grandoni

Sea stars are being studied and treated for the problem (Photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Lucier)

In an old industrial warehouse, Tiffany Rudek leans into a chest-high tank. Using a laminated card, she gently pries a red-speckled sea star from the enclosure’s bright blue walls.

The starfish is reluctant, clinging with its tiny, tubular feet. “It’s delicate to move them,” says Rudek, an aquarist at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Reaching underwater, she unsticks it for its own good.

It’s bath time for the sick sea star.