Flocks of countless small dead fishes on Thursday washed up across vast swathes of the world's longest sea beach, located in southeastern Bangladesh as lifeless jellyfish continue to float to the shore, as well.
Some eight to ten species washed up on the Labani to Shaibaal areas of the Cox's Bazar beach after the fishing nets of two boats near the shore were torn by a large school of fish, district fisheries official S.M. Khalequzzaman said on the matter which has baffled authorities.
"We didn't find any link of sea pollution or ecological imbalance in the sea, in primarily observation," he told Anadolu Agency.
Additional District Magistrate Md. Abu Sufian said the incident was unusual and that the possible effects of climate change or other potential causes would be studied.
Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, local resident and district head of the Bangladesh Environment Movement (BAPA) in Cox's Bazar, disagreed with the official account that the torn fishing nets caused the incident.
Meanwhile, dead jellyfish continue to wash up on Cox's Bazar beach.
In August, locals found dozens of dead jellyfish on the shore shortly after a government-imposed fishing ban in the Bay of Bengal came to an end. The number of dead jellyfish has since declined but not stopped completely.
Experts believe sea pollution could be one of the causes behind these incidents.
Chowdhury told Anadolu Agency that something unusual had happened in the sea as the uncontrolled dumping of waste in the Bay of Bengal has polluted the sea put its ecology at risk.
The environmental rights activist urged authorities to investigate and conduct scientific studies in the deep sea, deploying the country's navy to determine whether there was any pollution or ecological imbalance.
Recently, multiple deep-sea whales and dolphins were found dead ashore, with experts linking the incident to sea pollution.
Abu Syed Md. Sharif, a senior officer at the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute, said a team at the institute visited these areas and collected samples to investigate the cause of the incident.
"We found eight to 10 species of small fishes on the shore," he told Anadolu Agency, adding that a school of fish was caught in a fishing net near the shore and that the net was torn due to their weight.
They initially find no connection to ecological imbalance or pollution.
Meanwhile, the experts also studied the cause of the jellyfish deaths. They said most jellyfish died because of over-pollution near the shore area in the Bay of Bengal and being caught in fishing nets.
"As jellyfish are considered an unnecessary fishing item in Bangladesh, fishermen don't collect or sell jellyfish caught in fishing nets and release them into the sea, whether they are alive or dead."
He also admitted, however, that some of his colleagues were of the opinion that sea pollution or ecological imbalance was the culprit.
