Millions of Dead Fish in Redondo

[jorluivil]

Anyone watching the news on this?

[jorluivil]

Looks like its mostly anchovies but the live pictures of this is jaw dropping.

[yaknewb]

Free Lobster bait! Yea i saw that its crazy the fishing might be better less bait in there now.

[bellcon]

[yaknewb]

Wow those pics show more then the ones i saw.

[onetriphudson]

This is nuts, and it's going to smell terrible in another day or so!

[DESTROYER]

Weird! It's probably a good thing though because I heard there was miles and milves of fin bait from LJ all the way up to LA. Pretty crazy sight though. You gotta love Mother Nature.

[old_rookie]

Wow - that is incredible. Bait barge sink somewhere?

[wiredantz]

Originally Posted by wiredantz

Last night we had some Hurrican force winds, my palm branches were bending like L's.

This is not the first time that happened there. They get red tides there and the birds and seals go crazy. Everyone is going to be hosing down their boats due to all that bird poop.

[kayakhunter]

This used to happen in Santa Cruz when i was a kid, in years where Anchovies would show up in numbers, they eventually installed aerators at various locations of the docks, turning the whole harbor into a big fish tank.

I dont think i ever saw it as bas as that bad though.

[peguinpower]

The bugs are going to huge in Dondo!

my 2 cents, dines took a wrong turn and hanged themselves

[driftwood]

Originally Posted by peguinpower

The bugs are going to huge in Dondo!

my 2 cents, dines took a wrong turn and hanged themselves

Anchovies will die in warm water. Cold water current must of taken a diffrent direction ending the life of these anchovies/sardines run.

[Jimmyz123]

Originally Posted by onetriphudson

This is nuts, and it's going to smell terrible in another day or so!

I cannot imagine how bad this is going to smell by tomorrow. I hope they have some big scoopers going right now.

[maui jim]

I studied Nosetodumass, and this was predicted ...Quatrain 20:11

" As the silver shall be in numerous amounts as far as the eye can see, in the harbor of the king"

"The stink of wealth shall be great"

Yeah...it is written.....

[wiredantz]

lol

[YakMedic]

I just heard this on the radio, I figured it would be posted up on here. Those pics are nuts.

[sammysamsam]

Originally Posted by yaknewb

Free Lobster bait! Yea i saw that its crazy the fishing might be better less bait in there now.

Im new to ocean fishing but doesnt a lot of bait in the water mean better fishing? wont this be a negative impact?

[yaknewb]

So far every time i go and fish its really tough fishing when there is so much bait in the water. But im still new to this to i could be wrong to think the fishing is better when the is a moderate amount of bait not tons of it some one correct me if im wrong please.

[Fiskadoro]

Those are not anchovies they are herring or sardines. Have not looked into it yet but from the pics it's easy to see they are too big to be anchovies...

[jorluivil]

Originally Posted by Jim Day

Those are not anchovies they are herring or sardines. Have not looked into it yet but from the pics it's easy to see they are too big to be anchovies.

Whatever they are they're dead and they're going to start smelling like a whorehouse after a busy weekend.


Here's the LA Times Report...All they needed was a little CPR.

Redondo Beach fish die-off: Tests show oxygen levels at 'almost zero

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March 8, 2011 | 2:37 pm

Researchers have measured critically low oxygen levels in King Harbor after a massive die-off in the Redondo Beach marina.
Brent Scheiwe, program director at the SEA Lab in Redondo Beach, said he took dissolved oxygen level readings in the harbor after the first reports of the dead fish came in Tuesday morning and found them at almost zero.
“The levels were critically low," he said. "There was pretty much no oxygen in the water."
Photos: Massive fish die-off in King Harbor Marina
Scientists are working to determine what caused oxygen levels to drop so steeply that fish estimated to be in the millions suffocated and deposited a silver sheen of carcasses, many of them sardines, among the rows of docked boats. It may be days before the precise cause is known.
Marine biologists at USC installed oxygen sensors in King Harbor after an algal bloom caused a mass fish die-off in 2005. They are now probing the harbor for clues about the cause of the latest kill, said biological sciences professor David Caron.
“What we're trying to tease apart is whether it's a consequence of algal buildup, a fish buildup or something toxic in the water,” Caron said.
Massive, stinking fish kills also struck King Harbor in 2003 and 2005. Both times, algae blooms robbed the harbor waters of life-enriching oxygen, causing fish to suffocate and die.
Despite efforts by boat owners to scoop up the dead fish, the rafts of decomposing flesh unleashed a powerful stench that plagued the harbor for weeks after each episode. Some boat owners complained of feeling sick from the smell. Others were driven off their boats to seek refuge inland. Waterfront restaurants suffered steep declines in customers, unable to compete with the unsavory odor that hugged the harbor.
Such fish kills have been popping up around the world in what one Louisiana scientist calls “dead zones.” She has spent a career studying America’s largest one, which strikes nearly ever year in an expanse of the Gulf of Mexico about the size of the state of New Jersey.
The cause of the die-off is nearly always decaying algae. Although the oceans are awash in algae, these microscopic organisms bloom when fed by nutrients such as fertilizers and human and animal waste washing off the land. Stoked by such nutrients and exposed to sunlight, algae flourish and then die and sink to the bottom. Bacteria then take over, breaking down the plant matter and sucking the oxygen out of seawater. That leaves little or none for fish and other marine life.
Robert Diaz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and other scientists have identified hundreds of these around the world, choking the life out of harbors, bays and estuaries.
Writing up a report to Congress last September, Diaz found that nearly half of U.S. bays, estuaries and other waterways surveyed have suffered from low-oxygen dead zones. These episodes do not necessarily happen ever year. They strike when the conditions are just right.
The episode in King Harbor follows unusually heavy rainfall in Southern California, which washed lawn fertilizer, dog droppings and similar nutrients into coastal waters. Algae have begun to bloom along the coast as the days grow longer, providing needed sunlight. Recent winds have further enriched waters by stirring up nutrients that these tiny plants need from deeper waters.
Scientists believe such dead zones will increase as ocean waters continue a warming trend in a changing climate. Warmer waters prompt faster biological growth, just like molds and bacteria will more quickly devour food left out of the refrigerator.
Some scientists, such as Jeremy Jackson at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have suggested the oceans are reverting back to primeval seas of millions of years ago, when algae, bacteria and jellyfish ruled the oceans. He playfully dubs this the “rise of slime.”
--Tony Barboza and Kenneth R. Weiss