Stretching along the shore as far as the eye can see, it is a galaxy of starfish.
More than 10,000 were left high and dry on the sands after choppy seas washed them from their feeding grounds. And unfortunately, nearly all perished, unable to get back to the safety of the water. The graveyard of orange and pink extends more than a quarter of a mile along the golden sands of Holkham Beach in Norfolk.
Margaret Perrott, 63, was distraught after seeing the devastation on her morning walk.
Mass grave: More than 10,000 starfish died after a storm washed them onto Norfolk's Holkham beach
'It's a long stretch of beach and there were just thousands of them littering the shore line for as far as you could see,' she said.
The starfish, which washed up early last week, may have been victims of dredgers scraping the seabeds for mussels, their favourite food. The process could have dislodged the feeding starfish and the currents carried them to the shore.
But Nigel Croasdale, of the Hunstanton Sea Life Sanctuary, believes Mother Nature is the most likely culprit.
Dislodged: It is thought that the starfish had gathered near the shore to feast on their favourite food of mussels
He said: 'Strandings tend to occur once a year or once every two years.
'They are also most common between November and March - the time of the year when we experience bigger tides.'
Mrs Perrott estimated that the carpet of orange and pink stretched for more than a quarter of mile.
Death site: The starfish were littered along a stretch of beach in Norfolk
The grandmother-of-four said: 'The sight of all these little creatures dying on the beach was horrendous. We only went on a short walk and found a starfish graveyard.
'It's a long stretch of beach and there were just thousands of them littering the shore line for as far you could see.'
There was one bright spot in Miss Perrott's sad stroll along the beach: She saw one starfish still alive and returned it to the sea.
By Fiona Macrae
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