The dog Molly walks around tons of dead herring on a beach in at Kvaenes in Nordreisa (Pic: Getty Images)

The dog Molly walks around tons of dead herring on a beach in at Kvaenes in Nordreisa (Pic: Getty Images)

Thousands of dead fish washed up on a beach in Norway on New Year's Eve leaving experts baffled.

Residents of Kvennes, in the north of the country, were left astonished as around 20 tonnes of dead herring carpeted the beach.

One theory is that larger, predatory fish such as the pollack may have scared the herring towards the beach, leaving them stranded when the tide went out. A bad storm and disease are also possibilities.

Jens Christian Holst, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, said: "I have never seen such large amounts of stranded herring."

Dog walker Jan-Petter Jorgensen took the photo. He said that, with temperatures plunging as low as minus 15 degrees, the smell is not too overpowering so far.

It was not the only case of mass animal deaths. on New Year's Eve. Around 100 blackbirds died after they were spooked by fireworks and started flying into one another in Arkansas.