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

[eahostudio]

"a silver sheen of carcasses"

even the poor fish can't escape!

[jc]

aliens

[j]

I bet those seagulls and Seals are getting fat today.

[Girb]

It's time to close the Seaside Lagoon once and for all. If this doesn't convince Redondo Beach of the need to close this menace nothing will. This is more than just the canary in the mine, this is evidence that we need to close off this gross poluter, fill it with concrete and open the largest Indian casino on the west coast on the site. The only fish that should be dying in Redondo are any stupid enough to drop their hard earned dollars at the new casino's crap tables.

G

[KZinCC]

The L.A. basin was never a desert. It's SURROUNDED by desert but it has natural underground aquifers and naturally running water 9 months of the year If it was a desert why would the spaniards have settled here?

From a blog about the issue:

"Given the city's mean annual temperature of 65 degrees, to qualify as a desert under the Koppen system Los Angeles' yearly rainfall would have to average less than 7.22 inches. That has occurred less than ten times in the past 125 years. To put it another way, with its nearly 15 inches of rain each year the city would have to have a mean annual temperature of 100 degrees to be a desert. With a temperature like that the basin's overpopulation problem would quickly disappear.

Just because Los Angeles brings in water from hundreds of miles away does not make it a desert. Nearly all of the world's largest cities, located in humid areas, have to import water from great distances to supply their needs. And no one seriously refers to New York or San Francisco as deserts."

[rob]

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

Posted by: Andres
================================
It is Bush who's the Socialist. Medicare Part D - the largest expansion the the socialist medical program signed into law by GW Bush, and without funding so the deficit increased by a trillion dollars.

[Christopher Johnson]

This could end up being a 50/50 combo of people-made dead-zones, and last night's high winds concentrating the effects. This may not have happened without the combo of the two.

I'm surprised about some of the comments here: the lack of knowledge and respect for science, and what is currently understood about dead zones caused by agricultural and nitrogen rich run off, causing blooms, that suck all of the oxygen out of the water. This happens all over the place now and is well documented.

We'll see how this one pans out. The science jury is still out.

[clockerbob]

Ten years ago I went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography
and asked that they start a dual major of oceanography
and mechanical engineering to devise a machine
to filter runoff. Head of Scripps sd we are studying the mating habits of the chilean sea bass.

[Get with the program]

Only thing worse than the bad news in Redondo is most of the previous comments. Doesn't California have all the answers?

Weed killers have been banned in British Columbia for a while where real rain occurs and real rivers exist, when is California going to do the same?

When is the County of Los Angeles seriously going to address the pollution they drain into the ocean?

[Mangello]

Oxygen is a gas that dissolves in water in a temperature dependent manner. When it gets hotter, less oxygen will be in the water.

Oxygen is not found in water in great abundance (compared with concentrations in air). It is certainly plausible that oxygen levels can be depleted. There are many documented cases of mass fish kills due to algal blooms. Look up the word eutrophication. Eutrophication is often connected to agricultural runoff when growth limiting nutrients are washed into bodies of water. Because small life forms like algae depend on these nutrients to grow and can rapidly reproduce, they can overwhelm a system and consume enough oxygen to kill anything that is unlucky enough to be around it.

- Caltech Biochemist

[nemofish]

Warmer waters? do you know how cold the water has been in socal this year? It's like it was 7-8 years ago....quit trying to explain things you can't explain. We are not mother nature, we can't even predict the weather from one day to next, when an earthquake will hit, when a volcano will erupt, etc.... it makes me sick how much money we waste on funding environmental scientist salaries and research studies. Go build a rocket or something and go to the moon....at least they can control that.

[Mike]

Fertilizer run-off, algal blooms, dead zones, etc, are all things to be concerned about. But when an oxygen-sensitive species like an anchovy becomes this dense in an enclosed area, the school can very quickly use up all the available ozygen and suffocate. There's no time to "find a way out" - a dead end is a dead end for them. If there's a man-made explanation, it might be that the marina entrance is constructed in a way that a school of fish like this is more likely to be trapped just by a chance encounter with that area.

[joe]

its obama doing.. he lowered the oxygen levels in the water
so republicans have to pay more for fish..

[Puciret]

Oil and other environmental elements ( chemical waste being dumped into the ocean ) are more than likely to blame. But let's make sure and spend $250,000 to ensure intergalactic beings aren't responsible.

[Roysan]

Maybe its the aliens preparing for the Battle of LA?

[cooltub]

Lotsa bait now to catch real fish!

[agent mulder]

Bet that Chinese nuclear sub that fired that missle off our coast a couple months ago had something to do with this...

I want to believe.

[THE TRUTH]

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH? YOU CANT HANDLE IT!

[THE TRUTH]

The same thing happen in ARKANSAS, AND BIRDS ALSO HOW STUPID, can the media be! OK thy are control by the Goverment, ha,ha, wake up people, just did in the rabbit hole and you can see how far it goes. Just look thay have it posted all over the net. BIG GOVERMENT =BIG PRICE = ARE FUTURE = DEATH TO US ALL. MAN WILL DESTROY HIM SELF.

[Locals3]

Since Rushpublicans don't believe in Science, let's blame it on magical invisible sky-king Jeebus. It's a sign and a warning.....

Man, some of you people need to learn basic science. Seriously.

[emrliquidlife]

I am surprised to see some actual good comments. Caltech, yours are not included.

We had a 4 foot tide swing from 10:30 to 5:30 odd this a.m. The idea that fish couldn't swim out is bunk. A prior comment that makes so much sense is that the oxygen saturation levels from last night to today are not being shared. This would easily dispel misinformation, yet this simple info is not being released. Only comment we have is from Brent Scheiwe of the Redondo Sea Lab on 02 saturation. This coming post mortem of tons of fish. Something to the effect that he tested the levels....uhhh they were just above zero. Those fish didn't die in the light of the day, they died during dark hours, hours in which bacteria/algae were not proliferating.

I don't normally find myself in the tin foil hat group, yet I find it odd that I am one of the very few who finds all of this quite disturbing.

There was a cue that brought those fish into the harbor to die. A cue we should all be worried about.

[m44um44u]

Huge SCHOOLS of fish are dying? Come on LA Times, you missed a chance to blame the TEACHERS again. What's wrong with you?

[Andreina]

How stupid does that sound??? No oxygen??? really what makes up the water you fools!!! H2O!!! Dont worry about it God Knows what he is doing...its too big for you to understand...Idiots!

[ron]

it is coz of too many fishing and speed boats on the area maybe some of them got chemcals on them and the owners didnt know about it and it cause some unsual behavior on the fish coz of the disturbance of the water by the speed boats