Redondo Beach fish die-off: Tests show oxygen levels at 'almost zero'

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.”

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Photo: A couple troll their little boat through a mass of dead fish in the King Harbor Marina. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Massive, stinking fish kills have struck King Harbor before 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 unsavory odor that hugged the harbor.

 

Such fish kills have been popping up around the world, in what one Louisiana scientists calls “dead zones.” She has spend a career studying America’s largest one, which strikes nearly ever year covering an expanse of the Gulf of Mexico about the size of the state of New Jersey.

 

The cause of the death 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 blooms 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 zone. 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 dropping 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.”

Comments

[Joe]

I know. Let's blame it on George Bush.

[lea]

a fusion between religious apocalyptic fanatics and haarp could be provoking biblical looking disasters to enforce their sick dogma.
totalitarian patriarchs who believe women should not teach beyond 9th grade.
welcome to the middle ages
thanks but no thanks!

[alaskan1st]

When people started dieing of by the millions, we'll be concerned. Until then, everything looks good from where I'm at...............Really when people all die off from our own pollution, the world will be a better place for all life forms. Mother nature can clean herself when we are gone. And she will.

[Andres]

No lets blame it on Obama. He's a Socialist and wants to kill off the fishing industry remember?

[Ryan Toledo]

Typical liberal to place blame...Instead of looking for a solution....

[DeLia CA]

This reminds me of how they got rid of Godzilla in the Tokyo harbor in the 1950's!

[West Coast]

... and global warming, Joe.

[emrliquidlife]

Best article I have read on this. Good reporting.

We had a tide swing of +4.7 last night to .7 this a.m. With all the water leaving the harbor I have a difficult time believing that the fish couldn't find the way out of the harbor.

What time was the 02 level tested in the water?

[Kevin]

Earth is undergoing a magnetic reversal. Fish use magnetic polaraty to navigate like a GPS system. No red tide caused them in here. A magnetic anomaly did. They swam against the wall agressivly and with out end till they died off from cardiac arrest.

If gravity tricked your equalubrum in to think ing down was up and up was down when you were swiming at night you'd drown too.

Out of oxygen. They sure think were stupid! Thats like saying we all went to an indoor football stadium and used up all the air and died.

But like joe below says, Let all just blame Bush! or Obama! or Lybia.

[affableman]

No let's blame it on Republicans in general for wanting to gut the EPA...

[Scott]

The article seems to be making quite a big assumption as to the cause of this. Let's wait to hear what the scientists say... could be caused by man-made influences on the environment, or a completely natural event.

[kathryn burnett]

Are you sure it isn't the Roundup? I saw someone spraying some on a weed near a gutter of running water yesterday. Algae is chlorophyll. I thought chlorophyll consumed CO2 and sunlight and made O2. Maybe I'm wrong. I still think it's the RoundUp. It's everywhere and it probably kills seaweed too.

[Deebie Carroll]

OMG I hope they find out the reason behind this...

[BushWookie78]

No, No, No, Blame it on Charlie Sheen

[Fredric L. Rice]

This is what we can expect from the growing republicanism in the United States. Expect more massive dieoffs like this as Republinazi assaults against America's environment get worse and worse.

[stuart]

I know,lets blame Obama

[1hyplady]

I know. Llet's blame it on the glorified lush green lawns in a desert, LA!

[Patrick Tarango]

Uh-huh. We're screwed!

[Rocco]

Sorry, Joe. It was Jesus. He heard food prices were going up, and he wanted to help.

[woof-woof]

Thanks for the informative article.

[oooter]

is lawn fertilizer a nutrient for coastal waters?

[Park McGraw]

What was the oxygen level in King Harbor before the mass fish kill event occurred?

For that is the measureable value which is important and relevant as oxygen levels in the water after the event started could be just a residual symptom of the event. That in fact, prior to the event, the oxygen in the water could have been at satisfactory levels.

If the oxygen sensors in King Harbor are being used by the "researchers" for something other than just decoration should be able to quantify by now, having had the device(s) for 5 years, the rate at which oxygen is used and replenished in the harbor, and how that level of oxygen consumption and replenishment rate varies with fish population, seasons, temperature and tidal level. Otherwise, there isn't any research being conducted to warrant such equipment, and personally would like to review the data logs if any.

Also, why was money wasted on an oxygen monitoring system if no one monitors the levels until after an event happens? For like I shared, the measured oxygen level in the harbor could be the resulting effect of what precipitated the event, and not necessarily the initiator.

Complicating the current theory that low oxygen levels could have caused the event, is that the seas, except for Saturday, have been rough and turbulent due to very strong winds, stirring up the ocean and waters entering King Harbor. Plus, the harbor experienced nearly a 3 feet tidal change from around 10PM last night to 8AM this morning. Hence, nearly homogenizing the oxygen content level of the local harbor waters.

Therefore would not exclude the possibility that this fish kill, affecting mostly sardines, with only a few mackerels in the mix, was more biological in nature and species specific or to populations not having been previously exposed to such biological. Such as how the influenza or small pox virus may affect isolated population receiving a new group of never encountered immigrants with viral strain and or mutation. That perhaps another school of sardines, or vice versa, already resistant to a particular viral strain, passed on the virus to a susceptible visiting or migrating population of fish.

[Rt]

As I recall, King Harbor also has/had an outlet pipe for the treated sewage just north of the pier where the charter fishing boats dock.

[Michael M]

This is the result of the USA's lead role & role modeling for other corrupt countries who greedily & cunningly follow suit. This is our legacy to the children of the world.

[James]

Blame Obama!

He is so busy trying to redistribute wealth that he forgot about redistributing the oxygen in the water!