Redondo Beach city workers help clean up dead sardines
City of Redondo Beach employees participated on day three of sardine cleanup Thursday, scooping up the silver-scaled remains into nets and transporting them in wheelbarrows to plastic-lined Dumpsters.
Meanwhile, work boats from two private companies arrived to gently vacuum dead fish from the rocky floor of King Harbor marina, where 30 to 40 tons of sardines remained submerged, said City Manager Bill Workman.
About 50 tons of hot dog-sized fish have been scooped from the water, said Sgt. Phil Keenan of the Redondo Beach Police Department.
About 80 city workers showed up at 6 a.m. for cleanup duty, Keenan said.
Firefighting recruits from the El Camino Fire Academy in Inglewood were expected to aid the cleanup Thursday afternoon, Workman said.
On Wednesday, about 200 volunteers rotated in throughout the day, armed with buckets and pool nets. Workman declared a local state of emergency at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and it remained in effect Thursday.
After discussing the event with multiple fisherman in the area, it appears a large school of mackerel may have chased the sardines into the shallow water, Workman said.
The over-abundance of sardines caused the dramatic loss of oxygen in the water. No pollutants or toxins have been found in the marina, Workman said.
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-- Nate Jackson
Photo: Visitors look at dead 8-inch sardines at King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach on March 8. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
EDITOR'S PICKS:
After consulting government experts its always advisable to seek out the opinion of the real experts (if for no other reason than to get the sound of stupidity out of your ears). Anybody could have told you it wasn't a red-tide for the simple reason that a red-tide STINKS for miles.
Posted by: Joe | March 10, 2011 at 01:12 PM
Could this be a plague? Could this be a foreshadow of things to come in a world where we kill anybody we want to. The killing is not limited to babies, elderly anyone for any reason. People have become lovers of themselves, evil, hard hearted, doing everywicked thing that they can dream up under the sun. I don't seen things getting better, I see the opposite.
Posted by: Sheba | March 10, 2011 at 04:10 PM
My theory:
Killer whales favorite food is smelt, the dead fish are just about all smelt. Killer whales have been seen in the area.
A huge group of smelt were driven up the Redondo canyon into the mouth of the harbor, then were diverted into Basin 1 and died. Those in Basin 2 lived, probably because there were fewer of them and the basin is bigger.
Someone probably called Fox News which had their black helicopter up there before 9 am. Then the politicians held news conferences immediately after it was on channel 11.
No one ever cleaned up after the red tide. Probably because Fox wasn't out looking for a disaster to cover.
Posted by: Jim | March 11, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Maybe this was an early warning for the Japan earthquake???
Posted by: orbops | March 11, 2011 at 03:11 PM
how did it happend or whats the reason? please figure it out
Posted by: Diana Santiago | March 12, 2011 at 09:05 AM