It's believed about 5.4 billion Sunflower Sea Stars died off thanks to Wasting Syndrome, is there any hope that they'll ever recover?

It is frightening to witness how quickly the species succumbed to the illness, but even more so the speed with which the Purple Sea Urchins completely decimated the Bull and Giant Kelp forest's of PNW.

I've heard many different theories to what actually caused it, most scientist say that a heat wave caused it, some say it was toxic waste from the Fukushima meltdown, maybe it was an engineered sickness designed to wreck the ecosystem.

If nothing else the die-off of Sunflower Sea Stars can be used as an example to show how an entire Ecosystem can be decimated, just by removing a single component.

>>5020531
The cycle is
>overabundance of food source or other change in environment that favors a particular species
>species explodes in population
>parasitic species that specializes in overpopulated species runs rampant
>population crashes
And that has happened over and over again for billions of years.

>>5020533
Are you calling the Sunflower Sea Star a parasitic species or are you saying that Wasting Syndrome was caused by a parasitic species that prayed on Sunflower Sea Stars?

>>5020533
What also played a part in the boom of Sea Urchins we saw after Wasting Syndrome started, was the fact that shortly beforehand a huge population of Purple Urchins was released along the West Coast to combat a toxic Algae species, that was killing a lot of animals and made seals act erratic.

Why are their names so cool

>>5020555
Echinoderms in general are legit some of the coolest animals on the planet.

I never get tired of watching their little tube feet moving around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6dnmLDu6Eg

>>5020526 (OP)
Hopefully not, lazy free loaders.

>>5020858
In what way are they lazy freeloaders?