According to a post on the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW-Unifor) union’s Facebook page, a fish harvester in L’Anse au Clair recently reported seeing strange fish in the area.
That prompted Gordon Spingle and his brother-in-law, Craig Sheppard, to visit L’Anse Au Clair beach where they found dozens of the unfamiliar species washed up on the shore.
The pair showed retired fish harvester Clyde Thomas,who with his over 60 years of fishing experience had never seen anything like it in the area.
He also called his son, Jason, a staff rep with FFAW-Unifor, who recognized the species as striped bass after coincidentally seeing a recent presentation by a scientist.
According to the post, samples have been collected by the FFAW-Unifor for scientific analysis.
“Those in the area think that the fish got caught inside the estuary-type mouth of the river during high tide and that is why they were found washed up on the beach,” the FFAW-Unifor post stated.