Thousands of starfish stranded on Edinburgh beach as winter weather hits Scotland

He said: “I’m passing by on a daily basis so I quite often go there for a few minutes to have a look at the sea. I didn’t expect to see that as the waves weren’t huge. It was a sad sight to see, but at the same time the birds quickly fed on them so in that sense everything returned to nature.

“What really struck me though, was thinking about the scale of it. If there were so many starfish on such a small part of the beach, how many must have died in the wider area offshore?”

It comes just a few months after thousands of starfish were found stranded on Kirkcaldy beach in Fife - an incident which the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) described as a ‘natural occurrence’.

Speaking in September, a SEPA spokesman said: "Events like these are usually the result of recent stormy weather and strong waves, which dislodge starfish. During spawning this can result in large numbers being washed ashore.

"These events are part of the natural cycle of marine life.”

Edinburgh has been hit by multiple weather warnings this week, with the Met Office having predicted snow, ice and high winds in the Scottish capital. The north of Scotland has been hit with heavy snow, with schools having been closed and train services and flights cancelled.

Vlodek, who captured video footage of the mass stranding, said sea creatures are often washed up on the beach near his home after periods of bad weather.

He said: “I live just a few minutes from the beach, and after major storms the sea often washes up starfish and scallops. The same thing happened during Storm Babet a few years ago when, on a relatively small section of the beach, there were hundreds if not a few thousand dead starfish and scallops.”