This handout from the Phuket Fisheries Office taken on October 24, 2019, and received on October 26, 2019, shows dead ponyfish on a beach on Koh Naka Yai, east of Phuket. AFP / PHUKET FISHERIES OFFICE
Bangkok: Hundreds of dead fish washed ashore on a luxury tourist resort on Thailand's south coast, officials said Saturday, blanketing a long stretch of pristine white sands in a rotting stench.
Some 300 metres (950 feet) of beach on Naka Yai island was littered with dead ponyfish, Phuket provincial fisheries chief Siripong Panasonthi told AFP, adding authorities were working to determine the cause of the deaths but had ruled out pollution in the water.
"We have checked the water quality... It cannot cause the fish to die en masse," Siripong said.
He said he believed the catch of ponyfish -- which, when caught alive are sold to make animal feed but are worthless when dead -- had been dumped by local fishing trawlers.
