Ecologist Alex Romer tugged his snorkel on and slipped into the stillness of Palm Beach County’s Lake Worth Lagoon, an estuary of mud and sand, turtles and tidal whims, manatee and mutton ...

This is believed to be the first documented case of the starfish killer in Florida’s coastal waters.

Deborah Drum, director of Palm Beach County’s Environmental Resources Management Department, or ERM, said none of her marine scientists have seen signs of sea star wasting disease in the Lake ...