I came across a few new species of things during my Scottish holiday this year but by far the best was the starfish Astropecten irregularis. I may have seen it before but failed to recognise it.
We rescued this one from an exposed piece of hard sand at Gairloch and placed it on some soft sand in which it buried itself in less than 30 seconds.
Wow that's incredible. I've never seen a live starfish.
ReplyDeleteWas the sand you put the starfish on to be covered by the next tide or can they stay in wet sand for longer? I had previously assumed that they couldn't survive out of the water and that was the reason for there being so many dead ones on Formby Beach.
They are quite happy in wet sand until the next tide covers them, Helen. Whether they can last longer under the surface without a tide coming in I don't know.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I shall have to keep an eye out for live ones when I'm next at the seaside.
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