Not all the scary diseases affect humans. The disease that wiped out so many sea stars--"starfish"--a few years back changed entire ecosystems.
The disappearance of one kind of sea star removed predators for sea urchins, and they munched up the kelp forests in the Pacific off California.
Jennifer Caselle at the University of California-Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute was one of the researchers who recently published details of their work. She visits with details of the devastation wrought by creatures who might have otherwise been eaten by sea stars.