Thousands of starfish washed ashore at a beach in Ramsgate, in Kent, on Saturday. The heart-breaking pictures were captured by wildlife enthusiast Lara Maiklem, while she was going for a walk with her five-year-old twins. According to Maiklem, the scene spread throughout several beaches. But starfish weren’t the only victims, there were several dead fish, sea urchins, a dead lobster and even some false teeth. Lara, who despite living on the coast and spending a lot of her time mudlarking on the shores of the Thames, said she had 'never seen anything like that before.'
The Marine Conservation Society said that this mass beaching of sea creatures was caused by ‘the extreme cold and the depth at which storm waves have penetrated’. They also explained that ‘UK marine life is usually well-suited to cope with cold. Soft-bodied anemones thrive in fast-moving currents, and crab and lobster tend to move from the shore into deeper water to avoid storms. Most animals become slow moving, even torpid when cold, so would have little opportunity to escape tempestuous waves. However, and despite how upset people were about the loss of marine life portrayed in the pictures, this type of mass death actually happens very frequently, more specifically once a year during the winter months. Large numbers of starfish as well as sea urchins washed ashore in Portsmouth in 2016 after Storm Angus and the same happened in Lincolnshire after a storm in 2013.
The Beast from the East made us curl up in a blanket and had us refusing to leave the house and brace the harsh and slippery snow but these starfish didn’t have that option and ended up being stuck in the beaches of Kent not being able to find their way back to the sea. Think about that the next time you complain about your bus being cancelled because of the snow.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.