Tourists were witnesses to a bizarre act of nature on the Outer Banks Friday, Oct. 14, as fish began catapulting themselves onto the beach at Ocracoke Island as they tried to escape being eaten by bluefish.
Multiple videos shared on social media show the ocean appeared to boil with fish as they tumbled over each other in the surf. The so-called “bluefish blitz” ended with thousands of dying fish piled on the sand, flopping up and down as tourists watched from a distance, some in fascination, some in horror.
“Bluefish have been blitzing the Ocracoke beach off and on the past couple of weeks,” according to the Tradewinds Tackle fishing store on the Outer Banks.
“Amazingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. Smaller fish are literally throwing themselves onshore to escape the teeth in the water. … Bluefish have lots of teeth and will kill anything they catch.”
Some videos also showed the much-larger bluefish, racing through the water to catch and eat the smaller fish.
Marybeth Druzbick of Sylva, North Carolina, saw it happening Friday as she visited South Point on Ocracoke Island. Her videos show spot fish coming ashore in waves.
“This is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen at the beach!” she wrote.
“Bluefish blitzes” coincide with the seasonal southern migration of bluefish, according to Fishingstatus.com.
“Bluefish are extremely aggressive, and will often chase bait through the surf zone, and literally onto dry beach,” the site reports.
“Thousands of big bluefish will attack schools of hapless baitfish in mere inches of water, churning the water like a washing machine. … Bait fish, such as bunker, will willingly run themselves high and dry on the sand, where they will suffocate, rather than be shredded by the marauding bluefish schools.”
News of the blitz has gotten hundreds of reactions and comments on social media, including reports of people who walked the beach filling up baskets with fish.
“Fish on shore and gulls in the air as far as the eye could see. Awesome!” posted Joel Gossett, who was among the witnesses. Clearly, he wasn’t thinking from the spot fish’s perspective.
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