March 8, 2011 – So I was watching the news this morning, and I see that King Harbor, Redondo Beach, is where there were approximately one million dead fish Tuesday. So I go to the gym and decided, what the heck, I will drive down the street and see for myself after my work out.
Fishermen Cleaning King Harbor
So I get there, but ended up at the far south harbor, where the least amount of fish died and snapped these pics of fishermen pulling out dead and live fish on my Blackberry.
Barrel of Sardines Taken out of King Harbor Redondo Beach
I had to go to court that day, seeing as how I am a Redondo Beach personal injury attorney, so I did not have time to take more pics 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. There were so many sardines swimming around, they could literally 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 believed to be victims of oxygen deprivation and in fish terms drowned.
Hughan said the first reports of dead fish were mostly sardines that were reported Monday night and boaters Tuesday night got the full view of the amounts of fish that were dead. 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 stated the fish have washed up on shore, on rocks and pretty much covered the harbor in dead fish.
According to some scientists they believe the fish were trying to escape the rough seas, heading for calmer water. They feel the fish swam 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 city officials or he could not estimate how long it will take for the cleanup. He said that there were no red tide or toxic substances in the water.
There are biologists that plan to conduct necropsies, which is an autopsy on the fish to ensure that they did die from oxygen deprivation. Anyways, this is true citizen journalism. Booyah CNN.
