Thousands of fish 'jump out of the ocean' hours before Bali earthquake
Thousands of fish have been filmed washed up alive on a Bali beach just hours before an earthquake struck.
The tourist island was struck by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday, 102km southwest of Denpasar and 100km deep, the European earthquake monitoring agency EMSC confirmed.
Hours earlier, resident Made Putra Arimbawa filmed thousands of fish washed up on Bali’s Canggu Beach at night.
The video has more than 1.1 million views fuelling speculation online that the behaviour of the fish and the earthquake are related.
“If the fish rise to the surface, it's a sign that there is seismic activity under the sea. The fish will be disturbed by the waves and go up to the surface and die,” one local man wrote on the post.
Another man added it looked like the fish “knew what was coming”.
It’s not the first time people have related the appearance of an earthquake to fish either.
In February, the appearance of a number of oarfish in Japan sparked fears of a repeat of the devastating 2011 earthquake.
However, Head of the Center for Coastal and Marine Resources Management Suko Wardono said the appearance of the fish at Canggu Beach and the quake are not connected.
Mr Wardono told Jakarta news site Kumparan the fish seen on the beach were lemuru and are attracted to light.
He claims stalls on the shore had lights which attracted the fish who then became pulled in by the waves. He added the same thing happened earlier this month.
Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Adrian Meder told Yahoo News Australia he has a different theory.
“While this can be linked to an earthquake, as prior to a tsunami waters often recede rapidly, it’s more likely that the school of fish was chased onto the shore by predators, such as tuna or dolphins,” Mr Meder said.
“There’s been footage kind of like this from WA in the last year or two where Australian herring have been herded onto the beach by Australian salmon or dolphins.”
There was no tsunami after Tuesday’s quake.
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