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GALVESTON — Low oxygen levels are believed to have killed possibly hundreds of thousands of Gulf menhaden fish found littering beaches and shorelines from Matagorda to Galveston, officials said Sunday.

“It was pretty gross,” Thomas Powell of Houston said. “It was worse before we cleared them out.”

Steven Mitchell, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said low levels of dissolved oxygen in the offshore waters could have caused the fish kill, which progressed east from the Colorado River toward Galveston.

“I would say it’s pretty moderate to high level,” Mitchell said. “It’s extended over a large geographical area. It’s not what I would consider a small fish kill now, and it’s still ongoing.”

Mitchell fielded no reports of pollution or red tide, an algae bloom that also could deplete oxygen in water.