Thousands Of Dead Fish Washed Up On A Beach On Texas Gulf Coast

Thousands Of Dead Fish Washed Up On A 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.

 

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“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.”