Scientists are puzzled about why starfish are losing their arms, and appear abnormal.
The disease, known as sea star wasting syndrome causes sick starfish to forcefully take off their arms, and drain their fluids dry Tech Times reported.
"We were coming across arms and piles of deteriorated sea stars and individuals that were twisted," Ben Miner, a biology professor at Western Washington University told PBS Newshour.
"There were just bodies everywhere. And they were just like splats," Laura James, a diver in the Seattle area told PBS Newshour. "To me, it always looked like somebody had taken a laser gun and just zapped them and they just vaporized," James told PBS Newshour.
There are other starfish not affected by the virus, who can re-produce their body parts, while sickened fish are not able to.
"What we currently think is likely happening is that there is a pathogen, like a parasite or a virus or a bacteria, that is infecting the sea stars and that compromises in some way their immune system," Pete Raimondi, from the University of California, Santa Cruz told Tech Times.
The condition was first noticed along the Washington coast, and is rapidly expanding to other popular places for the sea life.
"The two species affected most are Pisaster ochraceus (purple sea star or ochre starfish) and Pycnopodia helianthoides (sunflower sea star)," Jonathan Sleeman, director of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center told Tech Times.
Scientists are requesting beach visitors to take photos of any starfish with the disease, and upload them to twitter with the #sickstarfish hashtag.
Scientists will then be able to figure out why the star fish are doing what they are, and find a resolution.
"Because these are ecologically important species, when you lose this many sea stars, it will certainly change the seascape," Drew Harvel, a marine epidemiologist at Cornell University told PBS Newshour.
