The mystery behind a catastrophic disease that caused the massive die off of billions of sea stars along the West Coast and confounded scientists for more than a decade is solved.

First noticed by scuba divers in 2013, sea star wasting disease went on to be the largest marine epidemic ever documented. The disease infected 20 different species the length of the coast from Alaska to Mexico, pushing sunflower sea stars in particular — and the vital kelp forests that rely on them — to the cusp of extinction in southern US waters.

The discovery is giving new hope that further outbreaks of the devastating disease can be contained or prevented.

The cause of the wasting disease is strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida, a four-year cross-border research effort by scientists from the Hakai I

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