Ashley May

USA TODAY

Hundreds of thousands of bunker fish became trapped and died in a Long Island, N.Y. canal early this week, according to local reports.

State officials believe predators chased the fish in the Shinnecock Canal (which cuts across the South Fork of Long Island at Hampton Bays, N.Y.), where the fish died because of lack of oxygen, NBC New York reports.

People are sharing photos and video of dead fish they’ve spotted by tagging the Shinecock Canal on Facebook.

"You could've walked across the water,” Martin West of Hampton Bays told News 12 Long Island about the density of the dead fish in the canal. “It was covered with fish.”

The canal locks have since been open, allowing the dead fish bodies to float out into open water, News12 reports.

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