{"id":238545,"date":"2026-01-10T22:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/238545\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T22:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:38:17","slug":"mystery-over-mass-stranding-of-thousands-of-starfish-on-edinburgh-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/238545\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery over mass stranding of thousands of starfish on Edinburgh beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Angie BrownEdinburgh and East reporter<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/74e9c900-eccb-11f0-baa8-753b7d8445ff.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Alan Simpson Starfish on a beach among seaweed \" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Alan Simpson<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of starfish were washed up on the beach <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Thousands of starfish have been washed up on an Edinburgh beach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Wild swimmers were at Wardie Bay in Granton when they came across the animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Marine biologists said although they would need to investigate before knowing why it happened they said stormy weather and a rapid change in weather could be the reason for the mass stranding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Powerful storms dislodge starfish from the seabed, carrying them ashore where they die from exposure.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b16567d0-eca4-11f0-9e5c-5102a53212cf.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Hannah Foster Pink starfish lie among seaweed on a beach\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Hannah Foster<\/p>\n<p>Wild swimmers were at Wardie Bay in Granton when they came across the sea animals<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Hannah Foster discovered thousands of the marine invertebrates at Wardie Bay before going for a swim at 08:00 on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She told BBC Scotland News she was &#8220;shocked&#8221; to make the discovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It was really sad and bizarre to see them all washed up and tangled in the seaweed, there were so many,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It was so cold last night that half of them were all frozen and dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;We did a short swim and took some with us that looked like they still had colour in a bid to save them, I don&#8217;t know if it would have done anything but you always have to try in these situations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;A local who has lived near the bay for the last five years said this has only happened once before,  it is not a normal sight,&#8221; the 27-year-old said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/f40ceaf0-ecad-11f0-9d80-bdb3e01a6d27.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Hannah Foster Pink starfish lie amongst the seaweed.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Hannah Foster<\/p>\n<p>Mass strandings of starfish are a natural occurrence<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Dr Alasdair O&#8217;Dell, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban said: &#8220;There are a number of factors to consider when events like this occur, so there&#8217;s no sure way of knowing what caused it without a thorough investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;However, stormy weather and the recent rapid change in temperature could have been contributing factors.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angie BrownEdinburgh and East reporter Alan Simpson Thousands of starfish were washed up on the beach Thousands of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-238545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}