Abstract
Mass-mortality events are seldom reported in sea cucumbers (Echinodermata: Holothuria), but here we document a localized mass die-off of giant California sea cucumbers (Apostichopus californicus) in Western Canada from August to October 2021. We recruited volunteer divers to count wasting and healthy sea cucumbers, resulting in observations spanning 500 km of coastline. Reports of dead and wasting sea cucumbers were restricted to Nanoose Bay, BC (Snaw-naw-as First Nation territory, 49°17'N, 124°08'W), with the exception of a single report from Hornby Island, some 55 km away. In Nanoose Bay in 2021, up to 94% of observed sea cucumbers were affected, with healthy sea cucumbers generally observed below 16 m. Following reports of wasting sea cucumbers, population abundance declined sharply. We returned in September 2022 to survey a subset of sites and observed similarly spatially isolated but less severe wasting symptoms. Although the mass-die off in 2021 occurred after an unprecedented summer heatwave, the cause of this event remains uncertain. This case study shows that mass illness events in echinoderms can be geographically isolated and negatively impact local populations.
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Data/code availability
All data and code are available at https://github.com/em-lim13/Cuke-wasting.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to all divers who provided data on sea cucumber health. Thank you to Christine Hansen and Gary Meyer for collecting and analyzing tissue samples for histology, to Dr. Ian Hewson for analyzing samples for Apostichopus californicus flavivirus (PcaFV), and to Steven Brownlee for compiling satellite-derived sea surface temperatures. Thank you to two anonymous reviewers for their comments which strengthened the manuscript.
Funding
This work was by a Travel and Research Award from Simon Fraser University to EGL.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by EGL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by EGL and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Organism collections were approved by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (license number XR 153 2021).
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Lim, E.G., Reed, K.J., Campbell, J.A. et al. Localised mass mortality of giant California sea cucumbers in Western Canada. Mar Biol 170, 86 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04230-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04230-3