Hundreds of Spanish Sardines wash up dead along a beach in Alabama, America

Gulf shores vacationers found more than just seashells washing up on the beach this morning.

Hundreds of dead Spanish sardines littered the shoreline from Gulf State Park to the main, public beach.

“I recently retired from law enforcement and this is almost as bad as dealing with dead bodies,” said Brandon Rogers, who is visiting from Arkansas with his daughter, Brooklyn.

They spent the morning scooping up the smelly, decomposing dead fish with a kid’s shovel and sand bucket, and then dumping them in the trash.  

“Just to clean it up, make it better, so kids won’t be scared when they see dead fish everywhere,” Brooklyn Rogers said.

“It smells ridiculous, it’s definitely an eyesore then you have the birds picking at them trying to eat them and flinging it everywhere,” Brandon Rogers added.

Theresa Reno from Mississippi jumped in to help, too.

“They were half-eaten, the head part was gone,” Reno said. “Smelly, disgusting, icky, definitely not someone I’d want to spend a day on the beach with.”

Marine biologists say fish kills are not uncommon along the Gulf Coast, in fact, they happen a couple times each summer when oxygen levels are low and the water is stagnant.

“Typically this time of year, conditions are of low, dissolved oxygen, a period of neap tide, we’ve had low winds, overcast, which has caused oxygen to be depleted in the water,” said Kevin Anson with the Alabama Department of Marine Resources.

A fish kill usually lasts two or three days- but during the kill, hundreds of fish can wash up each day- making for a disgusting and smelly day at the beach.