FOLLOWING wild weather on the NSW South Coast this week hundreds of baitfish such as yellowtail and slimy mackerel have washed ashore on the main beach at South Durras.
Friends of Durras spokesman John Perkins photographed the large school of beached bait fish, saying many were still alive at the time.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Mr Perkins, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said he had never seen anything like it. There were hundreds of fish layered along the beach and more in the shallows.
“When waves came in and washed them back, they didn’t swim away,” he said.
Mr Perkins said Durras Lake’s entrance to the sea, which had been opened since October last year, closed recently and he wondered if this had caused the fish’s unusual behaviour.
Narooma News editor Stan Gorton said the yellowtail scad and slimy mackerel were plentiful, but in all his years on the coast he had not seen them washed up like this.
The photos have been sent to NSW Fisheries to help solve the mystery.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/animals/beached-as-fish-out-of-water-on-the-coast-20130625-2otwz.html#ixzz2XGod0x60
