Starfish Mysteriously Die off the West Coast

PBS NewsHour reports that notable numbers of the Sunflower Star and other starfish species are dying off the UNITED STATES' Pacific Ocean coastline, especially in Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington. The culprit of why the starfish are dying may be a marine disease, although there could be other possibilities. Many commenters on the Newshour article speculate that they are dying because of nuclear radioactivity emission from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan; their thoughts are so far just speculation because there is currently no data to indicate that the starfish are dying from radioactive materials. The facility entered a meltdown phase when a devastating tsunami struck in 2011.