Why Are 50,000 Starfish Washing Up on Ireland's Shoreline?

Just as people were confused over a couple hundred dead dolphins washing up on a Peruvian beach earlier this year, so too are the 50,000 or so dead starfish turning up on an Irish beach causing a stir.

Tens of thousands of adult starfish seen washed up on an Irish beach. (Photo: Belfast Telegraph)

The Belfast Telegraph attributes the mass echinoderm death seen on the Lissadell Beach in north Co Sligo to extreme weather.

"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," Slingo Institute of Technology marine biologist Bill Crowe told the Telegraph.

Tim Roderick with the National Parks and Wildlife Service agreed "an exceptional storm event" was the cause.

The Telegraph reported Crowe saying he didn't seen any other evidence, such as an algal bloom, that could have been the cause of death.

This isn't the first time such a storm-related phenomenon of starfish death has been seen.

(H/T: Grind TV)