Thousands upon thousands of dead bunker fish covered the Shinnecock Canal Monday morning in a massive fish die-off that drew flocks of stunned spectators.

"You could've walked across the water. It was covered with fish," says Martin West, of Hampton Bays.

Bunker fish have many natural predators, and officials believe they were chased into the canal by a large school of bluefish.

"They chased them in here, but unfortunately the locks are closed so it's just a dead end, they can't get out," says Chris Paparo, of the Stony Brook University Marine Sciences Center. "And with the sheer number of fish in here, it just sucks the oxygen out of the water and they suffocate."

By the time the canal locks were opened and the fish could escape, most had died and they floated out into the open water.

Some fishermen scooped fish up and planned to sell them as bait to lobstermen in Maine.

Several fish die-offs were reported over the past year due to environmental issues like algae blooms, but officials do not believe this incident was caused by any type of environmental contamination or bloom.