The mystery of the missing starfish

Sadly the curse of 12 + 1 continued into the day shift with another kit failure. This time it was the back-up camera which means we are now a little limited with the equipment we can use.  However, despite the set back we have continued to make good progress around our grab sample stations in the South of Celtic Deep rMCZ.

We have also managed to solve the mystery of the missing starfish. This all began when we noticed 'starfish-shaped' imprints in the muddy sand on the seabed, but there were no starfish to be seen anywhere and no trails leading away from the imprints. We later realised that turbulence from the camera sledge being pulled along the seabed was sometimes lifting the starfish up and washing them away. The image below shows a starfish imprint, and the starfish itself.

Starfish imprint at the bottom of the image in the centre