Packed like Sardines

Redondo Beach Calif., filled up with hundreds of thousands of Sardine over night, turning the water a silver color. At some place the Sardines were over a foot thick chocking the water and making navigation near impossible for boaters.

Puzzling as this may seem, growing up living on the east coast in both Long Island NY and Maine this is not uncommon. During the 60′s I spent many of days During Blue fish season along the north shore of Long Island and at Northport Harbor waiting for the Blue Fish school to arrive. They would be chasing the schools bait fish, there were time that the Blue fish would chase whole schools of bait fish into Northport Harbor. That water would come alive with thousands of fish the Blues would chase these bait fish into shallow water where they were easy pickings.

With the Blue Fishing lurking close at hand the bait fish would become stuck. I remember at time there would hundreds of dead fish floating from being forced into shallows where they died, kept there by the ever present Blues and there they would die from lack of oxygen .

Again I can remember this happening in Maine back in the early 80′s, during that time I was in the US Coast Guard. Booth Bay Harbor Maine during one hot July had so many dead fish floating the local Seagulls ate so much fish they where unable to fly.  The smell of dead fish baking in the summer heat filled the air it was  awful.

Again it was determined the schools of Blue Fish chased the bait fish right up the Kennebec  River to dam, or into harbors were the fish became oxygen starved and died. It was so bad that hired tug boats to try to push the fish out to open water with their propeller wash. This was great until the tide brought them back in again. I can remember seeing large factory ships and smaller boats collecting the fish and bringing them to the factory ships for processing.

It was determined by the California Department of Fish and Game that what happened in Redondo Beach what was experienced in Maine and Long Island a natural occurrence.