50,000 dead starfish found on Irish beach

Extreme weather conditions have killed tens of thousands of starfish and left them strewn across a sheltered beach.

A carpet of pink and mauve echinoderms, a family of marine animals, appeared yesterday morning on Lissadell Beach in north Co Sligo.

The adult starfish, measuring between 7cm and 20cm in diameter and estimated to be up to 50,000 in number, stretched along 150 metres of the strand.

Marine biologist and lecturer at Sligo Institute of Technology Bill Crowe speculated that they had been lifted up by a storm while feeding on mussel beds off shore. LINK

Starfish: Sentinels of the Sea

How much do you know about starfish? You know a lot more after reading the post at ScienceRay! Starfish are predators. They don’t have real eyes, but they have light sensors. And they sometimes have more than five “arms”, like the one pictured here. Link, Via: Neatorama
(image credit: Flickr user candyonthebeach)