Huge numbers of starfish are dying along the US West Coast due to a disease that turns them into white goo and disintegrates them.
The disease is affecting a vast area, stretching from Alaska and Canada to Southern California.
It has killed up to 95% of a particular species of sea star in some tide pools.
Starfish, or sea stars, are marine invertebrates that come in a variety of colours and sizes.
Starfish are marine invertebrates. Pic: CBS Many scientists believe those affected are dying from "sea star wasting disease", a syndrome that spreads quickly and causes tissue decay.
They have noticed white lesions on the starfish, causing their limbs to fall off one by one in the span of a few hours.
"They essentially melt in front of you," marine biologist Pete Raimondi told The Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper.
But the scientists are puzzled as to the extent of the disease, which has struck in the past but has been more localised.
Mr Raimondi says the outbreak has never been as widespread as researchers are finding now.
Even starfish at an aquarium in San Francisco died from wasting disease after water was pumped in from the ocean in September.
"None of us had ever seen anything like this before," said Steven Morgan, an environmental science professor at the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis.
Mr Morgan has found emaciated sea stars on the rocks near Bodega Bay, but he was unsure if wasting syndrome was to blame.
He said the starfish deaths were a "strange anomaly".
Scientists are also concerned about the impact of the outbreak on the ecosystem.
The starfish dine on mussels, and there is a risk the collapse of starfish population will allow mussels to multiply unchecked, crowding out other species.
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