Tuesday, 23-Oct-2018 @ 7pm (Doors 6.30pm)
Since 2013, millions of sea stars have died along the west coast of North America.
These sea stars started showings bizarre symptoms. They developed skin lesions, which progressed to the sea stars losing their limbs, and finally causing the disintegration of the whole animal. This outbreak confused, and worried scientists, as sea stars are a ‘keystone species’. This means that a large loss in sea star numbers could cause a large change in their ecosystem as a whole.
Scientists are spending a lot of time figuring out what was causing these symptoms and how we can help fight this outbreak. They learnt that a virus is causing this disease, but they are still looking for exactly which virus it is.
In this talk, Dr. Alyssa Gehman will explore the current state of sea star wasting disease in British Columbia. She will discuss how the response to the disease changes along the coast, how the virus affects different sea star species and how this knowledge can help us fight this disease!
Price: Free, but register here to guarantee your seat
Accessibility: This event will be ASL signed and is wheel-chair accessible
Location: The Vancouver Aquarium
Event Webpage: https://education.ocean.org/oceanmatters/calendar/event/36351
Livestreaming?: Yes!! On the Vancouver Aquarium YouTube Channel
For more information see ocean.org/oceanmatters
