Thousands of dead starfish wash up on UK beach following snow storms

Thousands of dead starfish were washed up on a the beach of England's southeastern town of Ramsgate on Sunday (March 4), social media video showed. The footage showed some of the marine invertebrates to be in pieces following days of sub-zero temperatures that froze much of Britain from Tuesday (February 27) through to Saturday (March 3). Ramsgate resident Chris Constantine, who filmed the scene, said "to see so many thousands dead on our beach was unsettling." He added there were also dead lobsters, crabs, gulls and fish on the beach. Constantine said that while dead marine animals wash up on the coast line following previous storms and temperature changes, he had not witnessed anything to this scale. On Monday (March 5) UK's Marine Conservation Society said "the cause appears to be a combination of the extreme cold (where shallow water has frozen, or come close to freezing) and the depth at which storm waves have penetrated." "The southern North Sea is particularly shallow, so there may have been few "safe" sites (for marine life) to take shelter in," the organisation said on its website. Credit: CHRIS CONSTANTINE, RAMSGATE Via Reuters