Schools of live fish and a small influx of more dead fish appeared in King Harbor Friday. Officials and researchers said the new activity is in keeping with what was expected after more than 175 tons of sardines died in the harbor last week.
“We’ve had reports of a couple people panicking, seeing dead fish floating up,” Madrigal said. “The fish are coming back. That is a good sign. The harbor is reviving itself.”
Harbor patrol officer Sgt. John Pickens said several groups of 40 to 100 smelt were spotted in the southern basins of the harbor. He said the fish were smelt.
“Smelt, not sardines,” Picken said. “The sardines are still dead….But I think the sardine die-off is over.”
More carcasses, however, washed up along the docks nearest the Harbor Patrol facility and across the in the Portofino Marina. The sardine die-off last week was confined mostly to the King Harbor marina.
University of Southern California researchers monitoring the harbor believe that all the clean up activity may have moved some of the oxygen depleted water from the northern to the southern part of the harbor. The researchers, who have been studying harbor waters since a red tide incident five years ago, found low levels of oxygen in the southern basins of the harbor Friday morning.
U.S.C.’s Carl Oberg, an engineering technician who is part of the multi-disciplinary team led by marine biologist David Caron, said that the dynamic of harbor waters is likely to be in flux for some time to come.
“This is something that will be going on for several weeks, if not many months,” Oberg said.
Madrigal said that the upwelling of fish carcasses is relatively minor and does not mean a new mass fish die-off is in the offing.
“The latest testing report we got from Dr. Caron still showed diminished oxygen levels, but the fish life is starting to come back to the harbor,” Madrigal said. “So we are still seeing some carcasses floating to the top and city crews are going out there and doing their best to continue mop-up efforts.”
“But still a lot of carcasses a dragging out into that main channel because that retraction of water out of the various basins pulled fish out, and there’s still sardines decaying and floating to the top,” Madrigal added. “The wildlife – seagulls and sea lions, especially – are helping us keep that under control. The birds are getting so doggone fat they can’t fly anymore.” ER
