Mysterious Disease Causing Starfish Arms to Rip Apart [VIDEO]

Millions of starfish along the U.S. west coast are facing a huge threat from a mysterious illness that rips their arms apart until their insides spill out. This unknown disease has baffled biologists who claim the loss of starfish could threaten the marine ecosystem.

A mysterious new disease has attacked millions of starfish across the east and west coast. The syndrome infects the arms of the starfish causing them to contort and tear apart, finally killing the sea creature.

This bizarre disease was first sighted last summer at the Starfish Point on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. This ailment is destroying the creatures in Vancouver Harbor and Howe Sound, Canada, reports Vancouver Aquarium. Now the disease has infested regions in Southern California to Alaska.

PBS News revealed that the horrific infection arrests the regenerative ability of growing new arms, forcing the starfishes to perish within 24 hours.

According to Jonathan Sleeman, director of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, other types of starfish called sea stars were also seen battling the mysterious disease. Those kept in captivity also contracted the infection.

"The two species affected most are Pisaster ochraceus (purple sea star or ochre starfish) and Pycnopodia helianthoides (sunflower sea star)," he explained in a statement in December.

Spanning more than a meter in diameter, the sunflower starfish is the largest of all. When the disease infects the arm, white lesions form on the arms of the starfish that spread rapidly. The arm contorts and falls away. It slowly engulfs the entire body and rips it apart.

The disease has driven mortality rates of starfishes up to 95 percent.

While the exact reason for the death of the starfish has to be traced, scientists assume that it could be a virus or bacteria attacking the marine echinoderms. They seem to damage the immune system of the creature, explains Pete Raimondi, chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, source AFP.

Biologists are calling this mysterious illness 'Starfish Wasting Syndrome'. They assert that the need of the hour is to monitor and curb the spread of the disease in order to balance the marine ecosystem.