Lack of oxygen kills sardines packed in King Harbor, like sardines
Hundreds of thousands of sardines swam into King Harbor early Tuesday morning and died.
Boaters awoke to see a carpet of silver sardines surrounding their boats and covering the channels.
Click for Photo Gallery
“I heard what sounded like rain about 4 a.m. I looked out and saw thousands of sardines flopping against my boat,” said Lisa Burke, who lives aboard her 29-foot Erickson sailboat on P dock in King Harbor Marina.
Redondo Marina operations manager, and Voyager captain Craig Stanton speculated that the sardines were chased into the harbor by dolphins, in such numbers that they depleted the oxygen in the water.
“We’ve been seeing bottlenose dolphins inside the harbor,” he said.
He added that the number of sardines didn’t surprise him.
“They swim in pools as large as 50 to 100 tons, and Voyager has been seeing unbelievable numbers of dolphins feeding on them off the Redondo Canyon,” he said.
In recent months, bait fish have been so plentiful that local fishermen have complained that the fish won’t bite, according to Easy Reader fish columnist John Oliver.
Stanton estimated that as many fish sank to the bottom as floated to the surface.
“They’ll be filling with gas and floating to the surface for days,” he said.
Fish and Game Public Information Officer Andrew Hughan said his department was taking water samples and that Fish and Game biologists would be examining the dead fish. But he agreed with Stanton that the fish died from lack of oxygen.
“There’s no danger to the public,” he said.
Larry Derr, who operates the bait barge in King Harbor’s main channel, said none of the fish in his wells have died.
Andrew Hendra, a public works employee with the city, said he thought this die-off was worse than in 1995 when areas of King Harbor were similarly carpeted with dead fish. The 1995 die-off included large numbers of mackerel and garibaldi, as well as sardines. It was attributed to red tide depleting the water of oxygen.
By mid morning Tuesday, the city’s public works department was using nets, wheel barrels and skip loaders to fill dumpsters with the dead sardines.
Pelicans, sea gulls and sea lions, which had been feasting on the sardines, were resting on the water in the main channel, apparently satiated, Redondo Beach Police Public Information officer Phil Keenan observed.
He said the city was working quickly in the hopes of removing the fish before they begin to smell.
The dead fish will be composted, city manager Bill Workman said.
And on a positive note, Redondo councilman Steve Diels observed, “Following up on all the Blue Whales we saw in September, it shows the bay is teeming with life.”