Officials from Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) has rebuffed the rumors circulating on social media that the large number of fish that washed up on Batu Bolong beach last night was somehow related to the earthquake that struck off the coast of Bali this morning.
“We know that there were fish that washed ashore and it’s been linked to the earthquake. Let us reaffirm that those two events are not correlated in any way,” Iman Fatchurochman, who heads Data and Information Department at one of BMKG’s Denpasar chapters, told Kumparan.
A video of the phenomenon, which was posted yesterday evening by Made Putra Arimbawa on Facebook, shows tons of fish washing ashore on Batu Bolong beach in Canggu, North Kuta. It also showed people scrambling to catch the fish and put them in a bag.
The video, which has since been shared 18,000 times on Facebook, received a ton of traction, with many users commenting that it was a “sign” of an incoming earthquake.
“This is similar to what happened before the tsunami in Aceh, hope everything will be okay,” one user commented.
“This also happened in Lombok, after the fish washed ashore, a 7.0 earthquake struck in the evening. I hope it doesn’t happen again, amen,” another user said.
Indeed, the timing of the occurrence is perhaps slightly unsettling, given that a 5.8 earthquake followed the morning after, causing minor damage to a number of buildings on the island, especially in Badung regency.
Suko Wardono, who heads the Coastal and Marine Resource Management Office in Denpasar, echoed BMKG’s sentiment, adding that the phenomenon had also occurred earlier this month.
“It also happened earlier this month, and it wasn’t followed by an earthquake,” Suko said, as reported by Kumparan.
Suko added that it was just a coincidence and that fish washing ashore in large amounts is a seasonal occurrence. Moreover, Suko suggested that the fish might have been attracted to the lights that were put up by the stalls along the beach.
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