Craig Welch

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s west coast. For the most in-depth coverage of this breakthrough finding, don't miss this piece by @craigwelch.bsky.social in @biographic.bsky.social 🔗 tinyurl.com/2bmjdjex

such a great story about the researchers, their discoveries, and the fascinating lives of the sea stars themselves! Three cheers to Craig Welch and @biographic.bsky.social for this story.

Thank you so much for the kind words!

There are a lot of stories out there this week on the discovery of the cause of the sea star die off. This is, in my opinion, the best. Fantastic reporting, great visuals, behind the scenes science writing at its best. Give it a read.

Wow! Thank you! So kind!!

Sea stars emerged 1/4 billion years before dinosaurs.“Keystone species” was first coined about them. Because without sea stars, coastal ecosystems are devastated, as invertebrates mow down kelp forests and drive biodiversity out of intertidal food webs.

Fascinating
@biographic.bsky.social

EXCELLENT article and I am so glad to see @craigwelch.bsky.social writing about this. He's done so much crucial work on PNW marine ecosystem issues, and the deep dive here (pun kinda intended) is the best I've seen yet about this huge research discovery.

Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say.🙏🙏

This is a FASCINATING read.

Thank you!

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer

After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

by @craigwelch.bsky.social

www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...

🙏🙏

Pretty cool story @whatmaybe.bsky.social

Great read.

Thank you!

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

For @biographic.bsky.social, writer @craigwelch.bsky.social followed @hakai.org scientist @rhizalyssa.bsky.social's quest to unveil the the killer that decimated populations of sea stars off the West Coast. It took a few years but the lab's hard work paid off: www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...

We watched them unravel this enormous mystery.

Was it climate change?

Technically, no. It was an infection.

Unfortunately, it was from a genus of bacteria scientists call the “microbial barometer of climate change.”

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

Sea stars—26 species—have been dying by the billions from Mexico to Alaska, their arms tearing off, their bodies dissolving, w/huge consequences for the sea.

Experts finally figured out why— and gave @biographic.bsky.social exclusive access.

Can we save them? www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...

We watched them unravel this enormous mystery.

Was it climate change?

Technically, no. It was an infection.

Unfortunately, it was from a genus of bacteria scientists call the “microbial barometer of climate change.”

The photos of gloopy seastars is ☹️. Good article with lots of other great pics, though.

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

Scientists have identified the sea star killer in the Pacific Ocean. In this behind-the-scenes story, @craigwelch.bsky.social takes readers on a journey that began over 10 years ago when sea star wasting disease first surfaced. www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

Sea stars—26 species—have been dying by the billions from Mexico to Alaska, their arms tearing off, their bodies dissolving, w/huge consequences for the sea.

Experts finally figured out why— and gave @biographic.bsky.social exclusive access.

Can we save them? www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...

RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Alaska just hit a climate milestone — its first-ever heat advisory The heat bearing down on central Alaska "could feel like 110" in a state where the sun shines 20 hours a day.

Reminder while the East and Midwest bake, Alaska, home to permafrost (ground that is supposed to be frozen year-round)—where almost no one has air conditioning—faced its first ever NWS heat advisory last week.

By the always superb @loisparshley.bsky.social
grist.org/extreme-heat...

It's scary how fast the earth is warming.

For a long time, the 🌊 ocean surface was warming at a slower 🐌 rate but the warming rate appears to have caught up 🐇.

➡️ In our study about the jump in SSTs, we also estimated a 0.27°C per decade warming of global SSTs (www.nature.com/articles/s41...)

2/2 This week, I reconnected w/someone I interviewed repeatedly for that story. It's for a new magazine piece that will be coming in a few months. The subject of the new story could not be any further from primates in East Africa. And yet the source, again, was the ideal person.

Kinda love that.

🧵

Cool journalism moment: Years ago, for my first overseas assignment at National Geographic, I went on a 22-kilometer patrol at 11,000 ft in the Ethiopian Highlands and took notes on a cliff overlooking the Great Rift Valley while looking for poachers. I was writing about monkeys. 1/2

Trump quietly shutters the only federal agency that investigates industrial chemical explosions The Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates large-scale industrial chemical disasters, will close under Trump's orders.

OOf.

grist.org/energy/trump...

The Obsessive Search for the Tasmanian Tiger Could a global icon of extinction still be alive?

Then I re-found this @brookejarvis.bsky.social story, which has perhaps the most entertaining entire first section of 2018.

Read them.

They'll inspire, make your day brighter, and remind you that great writers make the world come alive in all its quirky splendor.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

How Roadkill Became an Environmental Disaster To save Brazil’s giant anteaters, scientists are grappling with one of the planet’s most transformative forces: roads.

I sometimes mentor young journalists. Our chats often end w/me sharing favorite stories, which I love because it sends me rabbit-holing on terrific writing.

Today I re-found this @bengoldfarb.bsky.social piece—the winner, in my book, for 2019's best first 'graph: www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...