Emergency response for marine diseases

Marine diseases can decimate populations and can have substantial ecological, economic, and social impacts. Recent disease outbreaks in marine mammals, shellfish, sponges, seagrasses, crustaceans, corals, and fishes demonstrate the potential for catastrophic effects, including reduced biodiversity, community shifts, local extirpation of species, disruption of ecosystem services, and loss of fisheries (1, 2). Currently, seastar wasting syndrome threatens marine populations by impairing ecological integrity through shifts in populations of foundation species and declines in ecosystem services. In the past year, over 20 seastar species on both coasts of the United States have declined to the point of local extirpation (3).