Visitors to the West River recently have been greeted with an unpleasant sight—dead fish. While an alarming sight, local officials say the dead fish are not a result of polluted water or foul play, rather, an unfortunate natural phenomenon.

The fish spotted dead in the West River are known as bunker. According to Environmental Planner Kevin Magee, the fish die because they are driven up river by a predator.

“It is a natural sort of occurrence,” he said. “It is pretty much caused by the bluefish pushing the bunker fish up the river and then the bunkers get caught up in the shallow water, so basically they get deprived of oxygen and die. With shallow water and lots of fish, it sucks up all of the oxygen in the water.”

Magee said he checked with the proper authorities to confirm this is a normal occurrence.

“There is nothing wrong with the water,” he said. “I actually called [the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection] to make sure I was right with my thinking and they said it is happening along the shoreline.”

Selectman and local historian Carl Balestracci said he has seen this happen before.

“When the bluefish are running and they get into a feeding frenzy, they push the bunkers up river,” he said. “This happened when I was first selectman and the health director called me one morning because he was getting calls from people—they were upset and I told him no this happens every so often. When the fish are chased up river, there are so many of them and, if it is between mid-tide and low tide, by the time they get up close to Route 1 on the West River, they run out of oxygen and go belly up.”

Balestracci said this phenomenon is directly linked to the name, Menunkatuck, Native Americans gave the area now known as Guilford.

“Menunkatuck in Quinnipiac tribe language means Menhaden River and menhaden is the formal name for what we know as bunker,” he said.

According to Balestracci, bunker are very oily and cannot be eaten, but they served a valuable purpose to Native Americans.

“The Native Americans loved this because they would go down and with their baskets and collect all of these dead fish and they would use them for fertilizer in their cornfields,” he said. “They actually taught the English how to do this.”

Overall, while not pleasant to look at, Balestracci said the dead bunker are nothing to worry about.

“This happens every so often. History repeats itself,” he said.