Thousands of dead fish wash up on beach on Texas gulf coast

Thousands of dead fish washed up on a Texas gulf coast beach this week, blanketing the shore with putrid carcasses, shocking photos show.

The horde of rotting Menhaden fish were found Friday at Bryan Beach near the mouth of the Brazos River, a few miles down the coast from Quintana Beach County Park in Brazoria County, local officials said.

The mass kill was “caused by a low dissolved oxygen event,” sparked by warm water, which cannot hold as much oxygen as cold water, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Kills and Spills Team and park officials said in a statement. 

“When water temperature rises above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes hard for menhaden to receive enough oxygen to survive,” park officials said in a Facebook post. “Shallow waters warm more quickly than deeper, so if a school of menhaden are trapped in the shallows as the water begins to heat, the fish will start to suffer from hypoxia.”

The lack of oxygen causes the fish to panic and act erratically, which depletes oxygen levels even further, officials said.

Fish kills like this are common in the summer when temperatures increase, according to the Kills and Spills Team.

Officials said recent conditions of cloudy skies — which block microscopic phytoplankton or macroalgae from photosynthesis — and calm seas created a “perfect storm to deplete the oxygen.”

“Often before a kill event occurs, fish can be seen trying to get oxygen by gulping at the surface of the water early in the morning,” officials said. “Some fish may also be lying on the bottom or at the edge of the water.”

More dead fish washed up on the beach on Saturday and Sunday, the last of which had “deteriorated to the point of being shredded skeletons,” according to park officials.

Park crews were at the beach Saturday and Sunday removing the putrid remains with machines.

Any dead fish left behind will likely be naturally buried in the sand and ocean over the coming days, officials said.