An Edinburgh dog walker was left astonished after stumbling upon thousands of tiny starfish washed ashore by stormy weather.
Stevie Dee was strolling along the coastline at the Newhaven Harbour when he caught a glimpse of the unexpected sight of the unusual marine creatures.
The Leith resident shared a video of the scene on Facebook, showing the harbour littered with alien-like black lifeforms in the pouring rain.
The video quickly attracted a slew of comments, with some recalling similar experiences during the winter months following violent conditions.
But Stevie admitted he was astounded by the scene, joking that "no-one would have believed him" if he hadn't captured it on video.
He told Edinburgh Live: "It took a few minutes to actually comprehend what it was, I initially figured that it was a type of seaweed, but after a closer look realised that they were, in fact, starfish.
"I then looked around to check the full scale of the mini-disaster and thought, 'I wonder if I've ever seen 1 million of something at the same time' - then downplayed the amount to 100's of thousands.
"I took a wee video, as I couldn't be sure that anyone would have believed me, while also trying not to stand on any or let my dog eat or roll in them."
Facebook users also noticed that the starfish on the video might be Brittle starfish that comes to the shallow water during this time of the year to feed on plankton and spawn.
The Marine Biology Association estimates there may be up to 32 different species of starfish living in UK waters and over 1,500 worldwide.
During the first half of December, Scotland was hit by two storms, with one of them - storm Arwen - being strong enough to leave some UK areas with no electricity for days.
