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Thousands of needle-nosed fish have recently washed up on Cape Cod Bay beaches in Massachusetts.
The fish in question are the Atlantic saury, a species of Scomberesocidae fish that swim in large schools, according to the Cape Cod Times, a Gannett-owned local newspaper in Barnstable County, Massachusetts.
The official cause of the mass fish beaching is currently unknown.
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Owen Nichols, the director of marine fisheries research at the Center for Coastal Studies, told the Cape Cod Times possible could include prevailing winds, large tides, cooling water temperatures, predators or the fish breed’s slender shape.
Thousands of beached Atlantic sauries were found on Linnell Landing Beach, a seaside destination in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. These two fish were spotted on Nov. 29, 2022. (Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times/Imagn)
Similar mass beach strandings have happened in 2018, 2016 and 1998, Nichols told the news outlet.
Fox News Digital Reached out to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Center for Coastal Studies for comment.
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The Atlantic saury is considered an "open-ocean, forage fish," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Atlantic saury is a slender needle-nosed fish that's native to the North Atlantic. (Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times/Imagn)
These needle-nosed fish can typically be found offshore of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Newfoundland, Canada.
The fish reportedly engage in seasonal cross-shelf migrations, the NOAA reported in an Atlantic saury profile, which cites information from a 1981 Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Science Council study.
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In summer and fall, Atlantic sauries swim to continental shelf waters, including the Gulf of Maine, the Georges Bank, an elevated sea floor between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (Canada); and the Scotian Shelf, a geological formation located southwest of Nova Scotia, Canada.
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The NOAA reports that Atlantic sauries have a "low" overall vulnerability rank.
Seagulls descend on Linnell Landing Beach where thousands of Atlantic sauries washed up on Nov. 29, 2022. (Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times/Imagn)
The fish are reportedly eaten by squids, Swordfish, marlins, sharks, tunas, hakes, Atlantic Cod, Pollock, dolphins, whales and birds.
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Atlantic sauries aren’t fished as a source of food in the western Atlantic, however, it’s said to be "an important food fish in other parts of the world," according to NOAA.
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