No matter how special such a carpet of starfish may seem, it is certainly not the first time that the North Holland beaches have been flooded with these creatures.
It happened last year around this time too. Then beachgoers also stumbled on hundreds of copies. Last October was the sight of sea creatures washed up a lot more gruesomethen there were masses of dead specimens, including sea urchins and cockles.
Marine ecologist Kees Camphuysen explained to NH that there can be various causes for these types of ‘invasions’. One of these is bottom fishing, for example by shrimp fishermen off the coast. Another cause is a strong onshore wind. “It can shake up the bottom of the sea considerably, dragging the starfish along and ending up on the beach,” the ecologist explained.
Back to sea
Starfish live not very far from the coast on the seabed and only have to ‘swim’ a short distance to reach the beach.
For those who are concerned about the fate of the creatures: when the water is higher, it can happen that they crawl back to the sea.
Such a starfish spectacle is not uncommon on the beaches of North Holland. We previously made a video about this, which you can see below.