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.

[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.

[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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(0)


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

[maui jim]

Just like the Salton Sea...Brown Alge good...Green Alge bad....

Where's Sonny Bono when we need him....

It's gunna smell like the Salton Sea on a nice 90+ degree day

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by jorluivil

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

That is kinda far from a normal oxygen level, and it's not the kind of thing you would usually see in there just because there is a lot of bait in the water.

Lot's of Chemicals can pull oxygen out of the water, I would say a oxygen level that is so depleted that it's at "almost zero" bis far from normal and more likely to be caused by something unnatural or chemical or at least more abnormal then just a lot of bait in the water.

I mean if twenty people locked themselves in their garage with a running car the carbon monoxide could pull the oxygen levels in the garage down to "almost zero" but that would not mean they died a natural death, or that they died because the garage was too crowded, or that they would of died with or without the car running.

The deal is basin 1 and 2 are not even closed in like a garage. The opening to the main harbor must be a hundred feet wide and ten feet deep, and there are several circulation pipes right in front of where the bait died that connect that basin to the next one over.

Big tides, strong surge, and the wind blew like hell last night, that basin should of got plenty circulation in the last 24 hours. I'm just trying to point out that it's highly unlikely that in a relatively open harbor that oxygen levels would drop that low unless there is some major influence like red tide or chemicals involved.

Jim

[Deuce]

I was down there this am. It was crazy. one side of the harbor, they were all dead. the other side all alive. They said there was no Oxygen. but all the other fish under the sardine's where swimming around just fine.

[mtnbykr2]

warm water...good...too much bait bad...

[frenchey]

WOW

[Billy V]

It must be the Urban Runoff, Outfall Pipes, and Excessive Coastal Development that was dumped from the mlpa.

Man -- that place is going to smell worse than Meg Caldwell's sweat pants.

[RedSledTeam]

I hear the Bonita fishing has picked up comensurately

[T Bone]

Just saw a great writeup on it on MSN.Its is a mass of anchovie,sardines and mackrel.Suspected cause of death is Oxygen depravation caused by too many fish in an oxygen poor environment.