Snorkelers and divers in Palm Beach County were recently stunned by a disturbing sight: starfish, also known as sea stars, with missing limbs, open wounds and bodies disintegrating on the ocean floor.
This marks Florida’s first confirmed case of Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD), a devastating condition that has plagued Pacific Ocean sea star populations for more than a decade.
The outbreak was discovered in July 2024 at Lake Worth Cove by Alex Romer, an ecologist with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) in Fort Lauderdale. While snorkeling recreationally, Romer noticed dozens of nine-armed sea stars with curled limbs, necrotic tissue and rapidly decomposing bodies…