Hundreds of Dead Snapper Washed Up on New Zealand Beach
January 5th, 2011There are several animal die off stories circulating in the media right now. I’m posting this one just to let you know that you don’t need to submit them to me directly. I’m already aware of it. Thank you.
Feel free to use the subreddit, if you like.
Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches on the North Island of New Zealand, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.
The mysterious incident came as the southern United States was hit with a second unexplained mass bird death within a week.
People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.
Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.
“It was so surreal,” she said. “It’s such an incredible waste – it could’ve fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel.”
People with binoculars said the snapper stretched as far as they could see and boaties reported “a carpet of floating fish further out to sea all along the coast”.
“We initially thought ‘woohoo a free feed’ but they had really cloudy eyes and you could see the birds had been at them. Some of them had no eyes,” Pearsall said.
Her parents called the Department of Conservation and were told it was most likely the fish had starved due to weather conditions, but Pearsall did not think that was the case as many of the fish looked big and healthy.
Related: Thousands of Blackbirds Fell from the Sky Over Arkansas on New Year’s Eve
Tried to research my latest experience on the Gulf of Mexico beach on 12/30/2010, but I guess that information is locked down by Google. WTF?
In any case, witnessed a MASSIVE abalone (beautiful dark purple shell critter about 8 inches long)beaching. Counted about 80 of the shells in ten feet in a walk a long the beach. Most DISTURBING thing I HAVE EVER SEEN ON THE PASSAGRILLE BEACH. People had used the shells all along the beach in their sand castles. Looked to me like headstones in a cemetary. Digusting. Disturbing. Not allowed by the Internet Masters to see What’s Going On.
Seaweed was also RED. Go Figure. Birds, fish, and shells dropping dead and its fireworks, or cold water. Sure. And I was born yesterday and don’t have the instinct to know better.
What do you think Kevin?
@brandon I have absolutely no idea.
Was at Little Bay a few hours ago and had lunch with Charlotte a few days ago.
Most likely a hole in a trawler net.
Happened a while back up northland way.
The snapper probably suffocated when crammed at the end of the net. When the net broke they’d float up and take days to wash ashore.
PASSAGRILLE BEACH – sounds like an algal bloom (being red and all…) – probably related to pollution. too many nitrates? who knows…
i was just about to say that at the end of the SMH article you linked to (i read it earlier today, or maybe it was another article) the fisheries authority person seemed to obliquely imply that it might be a trawler dumping its catch at sea for some reason. but then i read RBNZ’s comment above. also sounds plausible. either way, a huge waste…
It seems to me that if the firework explantion would hold up, we would see more dead birds around houses, fences and things like that. Because the theory is that they are pretty much blind at night and were afraid and died hitting things at high speed. Is it what poeple observed there?
But I saw a lot of dead bird in the middle of the streets in the pictures. Are those bird supposed to go full speed toward the ground when blinded? Would not they still be able to maintain some kind of horizontal balance even in the dark?