TOKYO (NEWSnet/AP) — Thousands of tons of dead sardines have washed onto a beach in Japan for unknown reasons, officials said Friday.
The sardines and some mackerel washed ashore in Hakodate on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning, creating a sliver blanket along a stretch of beach about a half-mile long.
Local residents said they have never seen anything like it. Some gathered the fish to sell or eat.
Takashi Fujioka, a researcher at Hakodate Fisheries Research Institute, said he has learned of similar phenomena, but it is the first time he has witnessed it.
Fujioka said the fish may have been chased by larger fish, become exhausted due to a lack of oxygen while moving in a densely packed school, and were carried to shore by the waves. The fish also may have entered cold water suddenly during migration, he said.
The decomposing fish could lower oxygen level in the water and affect the marine environment, he said.
“We don’t know for sure under what circumstances these fish were washed up, so I do not recommend” eating them, Fujioka said.
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