For five summers, volunteers have been diligently visiting Short Sand Beach, along the Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, to monitor sea star populations residing on prominent boulders within the tidepools.
They carefully count the sea stars on the rocks, measure them (from the center of their body to the tip of their arm), and take photographs of any stars that seem to be suffering from Sea Star Wasting Syndrome (SSWS)—or sea star wasting disease.
Information on the sizes and types of sea stars, as well as whether they are sick or healthy, is sent to the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe), a large consortium of research groups working together to collect compatible data that are entered into a centralized database hosted by the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). The data enables researchers to assess the long-term, broad-scale impact of the disease on sea star populations and make predictions about recovery.
Sea stars are a keystone species, or an organism that helps hold marine ecosystems together. If sea stars were to go away, “it’s going to really affect the entire planet,” says Kathleen Callan, a long-time volunteer for the program.
That is what makes this monitoring program so striking to her, she adds: “Witnessing this balance that happens in nature and how it’s all important to the beauty of our planet.”
Responding to a Global Disease
While sea star die-offs have occurred in past decades, where was a massive event in 2013 and 2014 that covered a much wider geographical area and coincided with a marine heatwave. In an effort to determine the cause of the disease, scientists reached out to volunteers along the coast to start observing sea stars—particularly sick sea stars—in rocky intertidal zones. After that event, MARINe and other organizations began establishing new long-term monitoring sites, with a focus on Oregon’s marine reserves and other protected areas.
According to NCLC Marine Program Manager Angela Whitlock, scientists now understand that the bacteria Vibrio pectenicida is the culprit. It thrives in warmer ocean water and causes the stars’ bodies to develop lesions, lose limbs and disintegrate in a short period of time.
“Although we have started to see recovery, the impact of losing mass sea star populations will take many years to turn around,” she says, noting that some areas experienced up to 90% population loss.
The Cape Falcon site was established in the spring of 2022. Each year, from May to October, volunteer with NCLC’s program, like Kathleen, visit Short Sand Beach, in Oswald West State Park, at least once per month for data collection. They focus primarily on ochre sea stars, which are found in the rocky intertidal area and don’t require special equipment to survey—just a low tide.
“There is definitely still evidence of disease that we see every time we make observations, but it is encouraging to now see more healthy than diseased stars,” Angela says. “I’ve also been very encouraged by the amount of juvenile star recruitment. I often find baby stars tucked away in the protection of mussel beds.”
While SSWS affected about 20 other species of stars, many of which live in the subtidal areas, Angela explains that “observing the disease prevalence in the ochres gives us a glimpse of what is likely happening with the other species.”
Additionally, the scientific community can gain insight into water quality and marine heat waves as they occur and continue collecting data for a larger dataset that will “help us better understand our nearshore environment and inform our next steps to protect it,” she says.
Volunteering as a Community Scientist
Because the disease is a global issue, impacting numerous areas, the sea star surveys are an example of how community science can augment the work being done by professional scientists that they simply don’t have the capacity to do themselves.
“You’re not the scientist, but the scientists need you,” says volunteer Beth Wise, who is on her fourth year of doing surveys at Cape Falcon Marine Reserve. “There aren’t enough scientists out there to get the kind of data that you can by doing community science. You may not feel like you’re doing much, but you’re contributing to such a huge set of data that they can draw from and learn from. It’s really valuable.”
Kathleen shared the same sentiment, adding that passion and curiosity are the key components.
“If you love something enough, you’ll make a way,” she says. “You don’t have to be a PhD marine biologist to make a difference. All you have to do is care about it.”
As she describes, “When you volunteer your time for others, it fills you up to. … All you need to do, to be of value to the program, is just show up. And that’s enough. After that, everything just comes.”
She also has a personal connection to the program as an alumna of the UC Santa Cruz system, through which the MARINe consortium is facilitated.
“That to me kind of brings everything full circle,” she says.
If a person loves this place and loves to learn, volunteering will do way more for them than they’ll ever do.
Beth Wise, marine program volunteer
Caring for Our Remarkable Home
Both Beth and Kathleen also are active in community science projects and volunteerism in additional capacities, with both NCLC and other organizations.
Beth has started helping with the marine debris surveys that NCLC also conducts along Cape Falcon Marine Reserve and she monitors a black oystercatcher nest near her home in Arch Cape for the Bird Alliance of Oregon. She is fascinated with the various ecosystems and creatures found on the Oregon Coast.
“Even just in the tidepools, thousands and thousands of tiny little things live there, and you wouldn’t know by just glancing,” she says. Or between the parking lot and the beach, along the forested trail, “you can walk 10 feet and find a whole other set of life. It’s remarkable.”
She feels that living on the Oregon, “you have to work to not be connected to nature. If you exist here, you by default are connected to nature.” And it’s that relationship to the coast that motivates her participation in volunteer activities, such as the sea star and marine debris surveys.
“I feel more connected to the place, so I want to do more to protect it,” she says, adding that “if a person loves this place and loves to learn, volunteering will do way more for them than they’ll ever do.”
Like Beth, Kathleen also has expanded her volunteerism over the years to participate in other activities with NCLC. That’s includes administrative work and participating in mailing parties, as well as doing the marine debris surveys and the Tidepool Ambassador Program (TAP).
She loves the community engagement aspect of TAP and getting to be out on the beach as ambassadors, introducing hundreds of individuals to the tidepools and their abundance of marine life and encouraging them to have a respectful relationship to the environment.
She enjoys “being able to show people this world and give them some understanding of how important it is for, not just our ecosystem here on the coast, but the entire planet,” she says. “Both for sea star surveys and TAP, when we can engage with visitors—and even with the local community—it kind of makes a statement that we care, and that we’re passionate about what we do, and we’re doing our best, and we understand you’re doing your best too.”
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