Biologists are trying to determine what has caused thousands of herring to wash up on the shores of St. Mary’s Bay in Digby County. The fish, considered an important feed species in the food chain, have been washing ashore in huge numbers over the past week. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans tells the CBC that samples have been taken and sent to a lab in Moncton. Pollution is a possible cause but considered unlikely as other species seem unaffected. A Biology professor at St.Anne’s University tells the CBC that other causes could be a parasite in the water or predator that’s been chasing the fish on to shore.