An ephemeral sea star ( Coscinasterias muricata ) wasting event at Tauranga, New Zealand

Abstract

During late December 2018 a sea star wasting event occurred at Pilot Bay, Tauranga Harbour, North Island/Te Ika-a-Māui, Aotearoa New Zealand. Forty-seven specimens of the asteroid Coscinasterias muricata Verrill, 1867, with a maximum diameter of 50 - 150 mm, were found in varying states of wasting on and between rocks at low tide over an area of ∼70 m at the NW end of Pilot Bay. The wasting event followed a brief period of heavy rain (97.8 mm during the previous 24 h) and was short-lived, with no affected sea stars observed after three days. The affected C. muricata may have had low resilience to changes in water quality, particularly salinity. However, the cause of this wasting event remains unresolved. These opportunistic data suggest that small scale sea star wasting events of this nature may be easily overlooked due to their ephemeral nature.