Million dead fish swamp L.A.-area marina

'Seals are gorging themselves' while leftovers are removed, dumped in bins

msnbc.com news services

updated 3/8/2011 6:57:21 PM ET

LOS ANGELES — Sardines and other small fish in the hundreds of thousands washed up dead overnight in the harbor area of Redondo Beach, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, puzzling authorities and triggering a cleanup effort.

Biologists have tentatively concluded that the fish died from oxygen deprivation after being driven by a storm into a closed-off pier area, California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan told Reuters.Local television news footage showed the mass of dead fish, said by a police spokesman to be about a foot deep on the surface, choking the waters in and around dozens of private boat slips in the King Harbor Marina.

"It looks like they just swam in the wrong direction and ended up in a corner of the pier that doesn't have any free-flowing oxygen in it," Hughan said.

"There's nothing that appears to be out of sorts, no oil sheen no chemicals, no sign of any kind of illegal activity," Hughan said. "As one fisherman just told me, this is natural selection."

Hughan said such incidents were rare but not unheard of.

While biologists investigated, authorities were beginning the job of removing the fish from the water, using buckets and nets.

A skip loader then carried them to big trash bins. Officials initially estimated there were millions of fish, but Fish and Game roughly estimated about a million.

City officials estimated the cleanup would cost $100,000. Fire Chief Dan Madrigal said the fish would be taken to a landfill specializing in organic materials.

On the water, nature was tackling the problem in other ways.

"The seals are gorging themselves," Hughan said.

Large groups of other fish could be seen nibbling at the floating mats of dead creatures.

"The sea's going to recycle everything. It's the whole circle-of-life thing," Hughan said.

PhotoBlog: More images of the fish die-off

Trudy Padilla, the marina's tenant services coordinator, said the dead fish suddenly began showing up overnight, and that one end of the marina was blocked off as cleanup operations got organized.

She said the smell of decay has not become so strong yet, "but it's going to if they don't clean up the fish."

King Harbor Marina provides 850 boat slips to private vessels.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41972653/ns/us_news-environment/?GT1=43001

Birds Fall From Sky In California, Thousands Of Dead Fish Found In Chicago

The Huffington Post Travis Walter Donovan First Posted: 01/11/11 11:03 AM Updated: 01/11/11 12:31 PM

Read More: Animals, Birds, Birds Dying, Birds Dying California, Birds Fall From Sky, Birds Fall From Sky California, Dead Birds, Dead Birds And Fish, Dead Birds CA, Dead Birds California, Dead Birds Fall From Sky, Dead Fish Chicago, Dead Fish Illinois, Mass Animal Deaths, Green News

Over 100 birds were found dead along a California highway this past weekend, and thousands of dead fish were reported along Chicago's lakefront prior to that. A smaller incident of around 30 dead birds was also reported in Missouri.

According to the AP, the dead birds found along Highway 101 in California "were intact and had not been shot." Thousands of gizzard shad, a member of the herring family, were found dead in Chicago's harbors, many floating in ice, The Sun-Time reports. Even more abnormal, according to wildlife experts, was the sight of Canada geese and mallards munching on the dead fish, something not ordinarily a part of their diet.

California and Illinois join countless other states that have seen mass animal deaths in the past weeks. Thousands of dead birds and fish were reported in Arkansas within 100 miles of each other, and then days later hundreds more dead birds turned up 300 miles away in Louisiana. Reports of similar incidents continued, with dead birds turning up Kentucky and millions of dead fish appearing in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.

The incidents haven't been isolated to the U.S., as hundreds of dead birds were discovered in Italy, and dozens of birds fell from the sky in Sweden. Massive fish kills were reported in Brazil and New Zealand, while England experienced an estimated 40,000 dead crabs washing onto its beaches.

Various wildlife officials attest that the events are unrelated, and are not uncommon. Multiple explanations have been suggested as likely causes for various incidents. Experts believe the dead birds in Italy suffered from indigestion after overeating, while fireworks have been blamed for bird deaths in Arkansas, Louisiana and Sweden. Unusually cold weather has been speculated as the culprit in many of the fish and crab deaths, with some suggesting the same for the bird incidents.

As for the latest reports of birds falling from the sky in California and dead fish washing ashore in Chicago, officials are currently uncertain as to what could be responsible.

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