When it comes to still life art, you can’t get any stiller than this Northern Starfish (or Northern Sea Star) posing in the inter-tidal zone of Great Cove on Labor Day. It’s dead, on its back, missing an arm, and not being eaten by our always-hungry and ever-vigilant seagulls and shore crows. Which raises a troubling question: Is the Sea Star Wasting Syndrome back and in Maine?
During the past decade, there have been epidemics of this disease along the east and west coasts of the United States. Warming waters are suspected of encouraging the spread of the flesh-eating disease in which effected starfish develop lesions and simply melt away arm by arm. Although too many starfish can wreak havoc on scallops, mussels, and clams, we apparently don’t know the effect, if any, of too few. (Brooklin, Maine)