Thousands of dead fish wash up from Gulf of Nicoya

Disturbing images coming from Costa Rica’s Gulf of Nicoya showed thousands of dead sardines washed ashore near the coastal town of Manzanillo. Preliminary online reports from various agencies including marine conservation group Fundación MarViva say that the washed-up hordes of fish were seen for a few kilometers.

According to a Facebook post from MarViva, it seems only to be a sardine species that suffered the widespread deaths. However, no exact cause for the incident is yet known. The report said it is unlikely that the phenomenon was caused by chemical poisoning or that it has anything to do with warmer water temperatures in the Gulf of Nicoya, since a single species appears to have been affected. READ MORE