Thousands Of Dead Fish Appear In Shinnecock Canal On Long Island

Environmental officials are investigating a massive fish kill on Long Island in which tens of thousands of dead fish turned up in a canal Monday. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation said the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays was closed at 3 a.m., trapping a large and dense school of Atlantic menhaden (bunker) fish. The DEC said it believes

the fish died due to a lack of oxygen and a high density of fish in the water. The DEC said once the Suffolk County Department of Public Works opened the canal locks at 10 a.m., a lot of the fish washed downstream — some of them still alive. “The large school of fish was most likely chased into the canal by other predatory fish,” the DEC said in a statement. READ MORE