Millions of Dead Fish in Redondo

[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

[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

[wiredantz]

any chance the the earthquake in japan killed the bait fish in harbors beach because of the plates releasing chemicals?

pressure being release from seismic activity?

[bubblehide]

Well, official word is now in, the cause was a very strong neurotoxin.

[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.

[Tman]

Wow...I've seen it at Salton Sea before, those pics are insane...

On a side note, I've found a solution, but I'm sure it will piss the phook out of Redondo...let's do a mass roundup of the seals in LJ, drop those bastages off, they will gorge themselves before the birds and the smell take over, and hope they never find their way home...just a thought...

[yaknewb]

Originally Posted by Tman

Wow...I've seen it at Salton Sea before, those pics are insane...

On a side note, I've found a solution, but I'm sure it will piss the phook out of Redondo...let's do a mass roundup of the seals in LJ, drop those bastages off, they will gorge themselves before the birds and the smell take over, and hope they never find their way home...just a thought...

Im Down with this iv got the truck you load them up tho

[Kirk]

A friend who goes to SIO forwarded me this email from David Caron at USC.

Following is a synopsis of the state of knowledge that my lab has
acquired regarding the massive fish kill that took place this week in
King Harbor, City of Redondo Beach. This is fairly general because I
am sending this to a fairly wide audience, but feel free to pass this
along to individuals or groups that you feel should be made aware of
this, and feel free to give me a call or drop an email if you need
further information or have questions.
David Caron



On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, King Harbor in the City of Redondo Beach
experienced a massive fish kill (estimates are in the millions of fish
killed), apparently mostly Pacific sardine. This event has received
national and global attention. My research group at the University of
Southern California has been actively working and monitoring King
Harbor as a site of recurrent algal blooms since a massive fish kill
occurred there in 2005. The exact cause of the 2005 event was never
clearly determined, but it coincided with a large microalgal bloom.
Thus, the buildup of algae and perhaps toxins produced by harmful
algal species, were implicated as playing a role in the fish
mortality.



In response to the 2005 mortality event, we established a monitoring
program there in 2006 to characterize the algal species at the site,
and subsequently a suite of instruments to measure water quality in
2007, and we have maintained those instruments and characterized the
microalgae in the water through the present time. These instruments,
and additional measurements made at the time of the event on March 8th
and immediately following the mortality event, are summarized below:



Our sensor packages in the water recorded pertinent environmental
parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll
fluorescence which is a proxy for microalgal biomass) prior to and
during the event. These instruments indicated a precipitous drop in
dissolved oxygen coincident with the mortality event. Based on the
information collected by the sensor packages, we conclude that
depletion of dissolved oxygen was unquestionably the immediate cause
of the mortality event.



Profiles of dissolved oxygen made in and around King Harbor on March 8
indicated exceptionally low dissolved oxygen concentrations within the
harbor, with increasing concentrations of oxygen in the outer harbor
region. Severely depleted levels of dissolved oxygen persist today
(March 10) in parts of the harbor in the wake of the mortality event.



It is not clear at this time whether the oxygen depletion in King
Harbor on the 8th occurred solely due to respiration by the very large
population of sardines that entered the harbor days prior to the
mortality event. It is possible that an influx of coastal water with
a low concentration of oxygen may have occurred, contributing to the
low oxygen conditions. We are continuing to examine this possibility.



Our continuously-recording instruments measured relatively low
chlorophyll concentrations leading up to, during, and immediately
following the event (<2 ug/l). Therefore, we have ruled out the
possibility of a massive buildup of algal biomass as a factor
contributing to the mortality event (high algal biomass was a presumed
contributor to the 2005 mortality event).



In addition, analysis of water samples collected on the day of the
event in King Harbor indicated very low microalgal biomass in general,
and the virtual absence of potentially harmful or toxic algal species
in the water.



Despite the lack of toxic algal species in the water at King Harbor
during this event, analyses of the gut contents of fish collected on
March 8th have tested strongly positive for domoic acid. Domoic acid
is a powerful neurotoxin produced by a specific type of microalgae.
The algae are strained from the water by plankton-eating fish such as
sardines and anchovy, and the toxin is often found concentrated in the
stomach contents of these fish during a toxic algal bloom. Domoic
acid can cause a variety of neurological disorders, and death, of
animals consuming fish contaminated with the neurotoxin. Research
also indicates that domoic acid poisoning can cause abnormal swimming
behavior in some fish. It is possible that high levels of domoic acid
in the sardines in King Harbor may have exacerbated physiological
stress of the fish brought on by oxygen depletion of the water, or may
have been a contributing explanation for them congregating in the
harbor at very high abundances, but this has not been confirmed.



We believe that the fish ingested the toxin offshore (before entering
the harbor) because domoic acid was not detected in the water within
King Harbor on the day of the event. Additionally, during our 5-year
study we have not observed significant concentrations of domoic acid
in King Harbor. We have confirmed that plankton collected from the
coastal ocean approximately 20 km southwest of Redondo Beach on March
9 had very high concentrations of domoic acid in the plankton. That
finding support the idea that the fish ingested the toxin in coastal
waters before entering the harbor.



This is the present status of our knowledge on this event. My lab is
continuing to analyze for other algal toxins in the fish collected at
the time of the mortality event. We are also continuing to monitor
the chemical conditions (especially dissolved oxygen) and biological
conditions (algal abundance) within the harbor in order to
characterize the recovery of the harbor, and/or any response of the
microalgal community to the release of nutrients by the decomposing
fish.



We are continuing to characterize the toxic bloom now taking place in
the adjacent coastal ocean, and we are acquiring oceanographic
information that will help determine if a pulse of low-oxygen water
from the coastal ocean may have entered King Harbor and contributed to
the fish mortality event.