A screengrab of the video showing thousands of dead fish washed up in Texas
A screengrab of the video showing thousands of dead fish washed up in Texas
Thousands of dead and dying fish washed ashore at Matagorda Bay Nature Park Friday, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Video captured by Youtube user "The Fish Whisperer" shows just how extensive the fish kill was.

The video's description describes a scene where "all of a sudden a huge amount of menhaden started to surface and then die. Pretty soon there were miles of menhaden washing up and dying along with other bigger game fish."


According to the Chronicle, Youtube users had several theories about what happened to the fish. One claimed an overabundance of fish in the water caused them to run out of oxygen, although several users disagreed.

Another speculated that instead, "blooms of algae sits on the top of the water and stops the sunlight from reaching the plants that create oxygen, in turn killing the plants and then the fish. They swarm at the shallows because there is less algae there and so a lot more oxygen, unfortunately, they push against each other beaching themselves."