They do, it’s true, but not on the time horizon that we have been seeing in the last 50 years which seems to be speeding up

That's not true at all.

Nature isn't gradual, it's catastropic. The Younger Drayas caused a 7° to 10° C drop worldwide in a matter of decades.

Volcanic eruptions, sudden drought, earthquakes, asteroid impacts, abrupt population crashes: sudden change is normal.

Yes, a lot of the change we see now is human impact. But this could easily be a virus that hit the sea stars out of the blue. We just don't know.

As a man of a science background, nothing is impossible it's just highly unlikely.

If you've been watching the changes in the aquatic habitat and the sea life populations they becoming simple / basic and more homogeneous as a function of changing water temperatures (and harvesting of sea life without the ability to replenish).

I won't disagree that it is possible virus or range of other possibility - I am not providing an answer. However it's a very high probability that the natural ability for that ecosystem to defend against the virus (if it was) was likely impeded by human impacts which change the water temperature and the species of life that live in that area.

We could posit many different theories, the fact is that nature is changing rapidly under our watch and to insinuate that it is a natural occurrence is disengeinuine and irresponsible at best and seems to be the push of a false narrative to undermine the consensus in the scientific community.

How do we know that? I’m not disagreeing with you- but I can’t imagine any historic evidence could rule out the existence of a highly volatile and cyclical population change.