Strange tide?

Grolschevik

There are almost unprecedented numbers of dead and dying clams and dead starfish on Portmarnock beach this afternoon.

Was there any weird tidal event or a pollution incident last night or this morning?

Paulw

I was out for a walk on Laytown beach on Thursday and it was similar. Even found a dead octopus on the beach.

cbreeze

Grolschevik wrote: »

There are almost unprecedented numbers of dead and dying clams and dead starfish on Portmarnock beach this afternoon.

Was there any weird tidal event or a pollution incident last night or this morning?

Only big incident was the sinking of the 'Atlantic Osprey' a couple of weeks ago - but the Council have been monitoring this carefully and I have not heard of any pollution arising.

I'm not an expert, but wonder if the clams and starfish are a by-catch of the razor clam boats, which are very busy close to shore in calm weather. I counted at least seven of them off Skerries recently.

The Hill Billy

Both are probably worth reporting to the county councils. The Indo had a piece this week about Palm Oil 'fatbergs' washing up on the shore in Skerries. They came from some ship that went down close to the UK a few years ago. Apparently it is dangerous to dogs.

Maybe there has been a more widespread pollution event along the East coast?

Dizzyblonde

I've noticed in the past few months that there is an unusually large amount of razor clam shells washing up in Portmarnock all the time, but haven't seen starfish. Sad to think of them beached and dying.

Grolschevik

Going to upload some pics. I've never seen anything like it, and it smelt like a working harbour. Had to resize some of them to below the 4MB JPG limit, so hopefully you can still see them properly.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/88579/409668.jpg

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/88579/409669.jpg

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/88579/409670.jpg

Grolschevik

Close ups. Edit: the close-up links don't seem to work on the app or touch sites, so I'm embedding them here. Nope! Still won't display!

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/

Dizzyblonde

Oh that's shocking - so many of them lying there dying! I've never seen anything like it

The Hill Billy

That is savage! I wonder if they were washed ashore (or brought close enough to wash up) by the strong easterlies earlier in the week & last weekend.

cbreeze

Grolschevik wrote: »

Going to upload some pics. I've never seen anything like it, and it smelt like a working harbour. Had to resize some of them to below the 4MB JPG limit, so hopefully you can still see them properly.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/88579/409668.jpg

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/88579/409669.jpg

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/88579/409670.jpg

That's just massive! Some major kill going on here.

charlietheminxx

I have never ever seen anything like that... oh my god. Have you phoned FCC?

Grolschevik

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I have never ever seen anything like that... oh my god. Have you phoned FCC?

Didn't think to do so on a Saturday evening, to be honest.

tricky D

There were some massive and deep swells coming from the east last week. They were topping the Howth's East Pier at mid-tide, and less. Perhaps parts of the lower littoral got hammered and torn up resulting in the carnage.

hytrogen

Give fisheries Ireland a shout too with those photos, possibly due to sea temperatures, also possibly due to fishermen and Chinese digging them up for bait / dinner? I saw them a while ago in Cork habour scavenging the sea bed ar low low water.

plodder

I noticed similar on the beach at low rock in Malahide yesterday. The smell was awful, which I presumed was from the dead star fish, but the amount of debris wasn't as bad as those photos of Portmarnock, which looks truly bizarre.

cbreeze

hytrogen wrote: »

Give fisheries Ireland a shout too with those photos, possibly due to sea temperatures, also possibly due to fishermen and Chinese digging them up for bait / dinner? I saw them a while ago in Cork habour scavenging the sea bed ar low low water.

I queried this with them, and they think that the heavy seas in the past while have caused this.

Wishbone Ash

cbreeze wrote: »

I queried this with them, and they think that the heavy seas in the past while have caused this.

A friend of mine who is a trawlerman said it was the heavy seas caused by the strong easterly which was blowing for a few weeks.

Dizzyblonde

It's a relief that pollution wasn't the cause.

LeoB

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Both are probably worth reporting to the county councils. The Indo had a piece this week about Palm Oil 'fatbergs' washing up on the shore in Skerries. They came from some ship that went down close to the UK a few years ago. Apparently it is dangerous to dogs.

Maybe there has been a more widespread pollution event along the East coast?

I have read of a lot of dogs being sick after a run on the beachs in Rush, Sketries and Loughshinny over the last month or two

cbreeze wrote: »

Only big incident was the sinking of the 'Atlantic Osprey' a couple of weeks ago - but the Council have been monitoring this carefully and I have not heard of any pollution arising.

I'm not an expert, but wonder if the clams and starfish are a by-catch of the razor clam boats, which are very busy close to shore in calm weather. I counted at least seven of them off Skerries recently.

There has been a lot of activity with boats trawling in close to the shore and this always cause a lot of different things to get washed up on the shore.

The Hill Billy wrote: »

That is savage! I wonder if they were washed ashore (or brought close enough to wash up) by the strong easterlies earlier in the week & last weekend.

The seas last week along out stretch of the coast washed up all sorts and with the closeness of the boats especially along by Barnegeera and off the Drummanagh near the north beach is causing some of it. One morning coming back from Balbriggan about 10 days ago there was an awful smell at Barnegeera and a bit of the point in Rush.

Most likely its a mix of the boats, strong winds and a few big tides.

prynhawnda

i'm too sick to be going out right now but i've a friend sending pictures of thousands of dead starfish to me around portmarnock beach near the thai place telling me the water smells ferocious and that all of these starfish are dead. what could be going on??

Alun

See

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057708320

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057707760

Basically very heavy sea swells in recent days coming from the east that caused them to wash up from the sea bed in the immediate area. It's not an uncommon occurrence in many places on earth in such circumstances.

TallGlass

Anything down around Bull Island, would it be worth treking out there to take a look?

Dizzyblonde

Welcome to Boards prynhawnda. I've merged your thread with the existing one

I haven't been to the beach in over a week - I'd imagine it's stinking by now.