Thousands of dead sand dollars and sea stars recently washed up in NW Florida (BP? hmmmm)

[moobu2]

At first glance, it looks like a coin machine exploded on the shoreline.

Thousands of sand dollars cover the beach from the Fort Pickens gate area to at least a mile west. And they're also directly across Santa Rosa Sound from that area, on the south shore of Gulf Breeze.

The nickel- and quarter-sized sand dollars are all dead. They're not white; rather, they're tinged green like a coin left in water,

The mass die-off is raising concerns about what killed or is killing the sand dollars and hundreds of sea stars mixed in with them.

Fort Pickens biologists are looking into it, and so is City of Gulf Breeze environmental adviser Heather Reed.

So far, no one is linking it to last April's oil spill.

"A mass kill like this is probably from a lack of oxygen in the water," said Reed, a marine biologist. "But it's hard to pinpoint it to the oil spill."

If it's related to oxygen depletion, Reed is worried this could be the first sign of a fish kill.

Reed was alerted to the die-off by Berta Hurston, who discovered waves of sand dollars washing up at Fort Pickens while out boating on May 28.

This may be a natural phenomenon but I've lived down here my entire life and I've never seen this ... More here.

[B2G]

1. Sand dollars are never white

unless you soak them in bleach.

[yawnmaster]

3. I've found plenty of white sand dollar skeletons on the beach...

They will naturally bleach, faster in the sun. They don't get as "pure" white as ones purchased, but they are definitely white.
The ones in that picture are only recently dead as one can still see the "hair" and membranes on the skeleton.

[B2G]

4. That was my point

Recently dead sand dollars are not white.

[yawnmaster]

8. guess I mistook the "never" for never and not "recently dead" eom

[theophilus]

2. Or unusually warm water? n/t

[FLPanhandle]

5. We live just down the coast from there

I'm going to keep an eye out for wash ups here now. thanks.

[LiberalAndProud]

6. "But it's hard to pinpoint it to the oil spill."

That's the problem. It's the problem with disasters like that occurring at Fukushima and like the BP oil spills. We can note the correlation and suspect causation. But if you had to prove it, you're likely SOL. And we are.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. sad. Poor creatures