Video footage illustrates dead snapper and gurnard that washed up on a six-kilometre stretch of Muriwai Beach.

Snapper may be too pricey for many at the supermarket, but hundreds have washed up at a west Auckland beach.

A trail of snapper and gurnard stretching six kilometres along Muriwai Beach was filmed on Tuesday by fishery protection group LegaSea.

The video shows dozens of fish dead on the beach in what the group claimed was yet another example of unnecessary wastage in the fishing industry.

GETTY Six kilometres of dead snapper and gurnard were found washed up on Auckland's Muriwai beach

LegaSea spokesman Richard Barker said no fishing company had so far taken responsibility for the fish, which were likely the result of trawling.

"The reality is the waste out of trawling is what it is, that's not to say this is trawling waste but I mean what else could it be?"

It could either be intentionally dumped fish, or accidental spill out of split nets but either way it was damaging.

"Either way there's still a whole lot of dead fish from a fishery we're trying to rebuild."

It was hard to tell how many fish were on the beach but the size of the spread indicated it was large scale and there would be even more still in the water, he said.

Earlier this year the Ministry for Primary Industries launched an investigation after a trail of undersized gurnard "as far as the eye can see" was spotted off the west Auckland coast.