50,000 starfish found dead on Irish beach
Thousands of dead starfish have created a strange sight on Lissadell Beach, Co Sligo. By Shelley Marsden - 06/11/09
Extreme weather conditions have killed tens of thousands of the sea creatures and left them scattered across the secluded beach.
Pink and mauve in colour, the adult marine animals appeared on the stretch of sand yesterday morning.
Measuring between 7cm and 20cm in diameter, estimates say there are up to 50,000 in number stretched along 150 metres of beach.
Marine biologist and lecturer at Sligo Institute of Technology Bill Crowe told the Belfast Telegraph that he believed they had been lifted up by a storm while feeding on mussel beds off shore.
"The most likely explanation is that they were feeding on mussels but it is a little strange that none of them were attached to mussels when they were washed in," he said.
He added that if they had died as a result of an algal bloom, other sealife would have been fond washed up beside them.
"These were almost all adult size and the typical starfish variety that is found in the North Atlantic but there was nothing else mixed in with them," he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government said that investigations were ongoing into what exactly happened, but it would seem to be the stormy weather, which has hit the north-west in recent days.
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