‘Thousands’ of small fish mysteriously wash up in Mousehole Harbour

Visitors to a Cornish harbor have been left wondering why “thousands” of tiny fish have mysteriously washed up at low tide. Belinda Taylor was visiting Mousehole in London on Sunday (June 23) with her family when she witnessed the unusual sight on the harbour.

She described seeing “a carpet” of what she believes to be dead sand eels – schools of small fish – washed up on the sand around 10.30am. Belinda said it was heartbreaking as a nature lover to see the fish and was left wondering what had caused them to end up in that state.

“I was completely horrified and very shocked to see this,” she told CornwallLive. “It was like a carpet of sand eels, there were probably thousands of them and it was a desperately sad sight as I know they are vital food for certain seabirds.”

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Belinda said it was her two-year-old granddaughter who first saw the dead fish when they went paddling in the harbour. She said signs were then put up recommending no swimming and she returned later to find the sand eels had all been removed.

“I had my niece with me and she was the one who noticed them first,” explained Belinda. “We wanted to have a small paddle in the harbor but I didn’t feel comfortable with it swimming in the water after that and then signs were put up saying we shouldn’t be swimming in it anyway.”

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It is not the first unusual sighting of thousands of small dead fish in Cornwall. In 2017, CornwallLive reported that visitors to Crinnis Beach in St Austell were left confused when they saw thousands of small fish were up along the shore.

St Austell woman Nikki Hotchin had visited Carlyon Bay beach and witnessed the extraordinary sight. She took a photo of the fish and shared it on Facebook to ask if anyone knew what they were and why they washed up. Baits, pilchards and sandbaits have been suggested as possible identifications of the fish.

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