March 8, 2011 – I was watching the news this morning, and I saw that on Tuesday, there were approximately one million dead fish in King Harbor, Redondo Beach. So I went to the gym and decided, “What the heck?” I will drive down the street and see for myself after my workout.
I got there but ended up at the far south harbor, where the fewest fish died. On my Blackberry, I snapped these pictures of fishermen pulling out dead and live fish.
A Barrel of Sardines Taken out of King Harbor Redondo Beach
I had to go to court that day, as I am a Redondo Beach personal injury attorney, so I did not have time to take more pictures of where the larger fish schools had died.
This incident is the largest that has occurred in California, and it is believed that they might have been victims of rough seas and oxygen deprivation. I believe it. So many sardines were swimming around that they could have consumed all of the oxygen in the harbor. According to State Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan, there is no threat to the public or other marine life. The fish were not victims of a red tide and were believed to be victims of oxygen deprivation and, in fish terms, drowned.
Hughan said the first reports of dead fish were primarily sardines, reported Monday night. Boaters Tuesday night got the full view of the number of dead fish. He also stated that this situation is going to have a terrible odor and will only get worse.
There has been no has-mat safety issue, and, as I stated above, workers with nets and buckets were cleaning the dead fish out at King Harbor Marina. Hughan noted that the fish had washed up on shore and on rocks and covered the harbor with dead fish.
Some scientists believe the fish were trying to escape the rough seas, heading for calmer water. They felt the fish swim around the sea wall into water that lacked oxygen. Hugan stated that underwater, the dead fish were piled between one and two feet deep, and he or city officials could not estimate how long it would take for the cleanup. He said there were no red tide or toxic substances in the water.
Some biologists plan to conduct necropsies, which is an autopsy on the fish to ensure that they did die from oxygen deprivation. Anyways, this is trustworthy citizen journalism. Booyah CNN.
