Ongoing massive fish deaths along the Atlantic coast

This started in late July, and is continuing. Atlantic croakers - and apparently only Atlantic croakers - are dying off by the hundreds of thousands.

The croakers are apparently suffocating, their gills left bleeding . . . research indicates that a bacteria of unknown origin is attacking the gills, causing infection and hemorrhaging.

Maryland authorities had said the croakers died after a sudden temperature change in Atlantic Ocean waters - the hemorrhaging was not noticed at first. Death could still be due to lower temperatures combined with the infection.