The walkers must have been surprised.
Hundreds of starfish have washed up in recent days on the beach of Merville-Franceville, located between Cabourg and Ouistreham (Calvados), as evidenced by photos shared on social networks.
A rare but not exceptional stranding.
In June 2023, stars had accumulated on the beaches of Finistère and Morbihan.
Storm Louis brought down the starfish in Merville-Franceville.
Philippe Landaud captured a sad scene: a large number of starfish litter the beach after the recent storm.
#Normandy pic.twitter.com/LM5TopXQQD
— marga (@chiquitamala) February 29, 2024
The very windy weather of recent days is believed to be the cause of the phenomenon.
“These starfish are at home in the Bay of Seine, and their presence in numbers is one of the consequences of the last big gales on the coast,” Éric Foucher, biologist at the sea station, explained to France Bleu. Port-en-Bessin of the French Research Institute entirely dedicated to knowledge of the ocean (Ifremer).
On February 22, Storm Louis caused gusts of more than 120 km/h and deprived thousands of homes of electricity.
This gale associated with “fairly strong tidal coefficients”, as Jean-Yves Jégourel, coordinator at the Permanent Center for Environmental Initiatives (CPIE) in Ouest-France, explains, carried the starfish , numerous in the Bay of Seine, up to the Normandy coast.
Clean-up operations have started.