Terrified fish by the thousands throw themselves onto Outer Banks beach, videos show


Facebook screengrab Mark Price
Mon, October 17, 2022 

Mystified Outer Banks tourists witnessed a bizarre act of nature Friday, Oct. 14, as fish began flinging themselves onto the beach at Ocracoke Island.

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” concluded with thousands of dying fish piled on the sand, flopping up and down as tourists watched from a distance.

“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 (mostly spot in these photos) 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 seen at the beach!” she wrote.

“Bluefish blitzes” coincide with the seasonal southern migration of bluefish, which are cannibalistic and will snap at people, 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.

“Just pick them up. No hook needed. Crazy!” Duane Shreeves wrote.

“Enough spot (fish) to feed 1,000’s of folks,” John Koster Jr. said.