(Newser) – And the dead animals keep coming and coming and coming. The latest: an estimated 2 million dead fish in the Chesapeake Bay. State officials investigating the fish kill believe winter temperatures are to blame. The majority of the dead fish are adult "spot," which a Maryland Department of the Environment rep explains are susceptible to chilly water, and typically migrate out of the upper bay by now.



The Baltimore Sun notes that water temps fell to 36 degrees late last month, a near-record low. The rep adds mass die-offs of spot have been noted twice before, in 1976 and 1980. Click for more on the recent slew of animal deaths. (Read more dead animals stories.)

