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Subscribe to RSSExperts believe a lack of oxygen caused thousands of dead menhaden to wash up on a South Carolina shore. WMBF's Ken Baker reports.
Thousands of dead fish washed up on a mile and a half stretch of beach in South Carolina Tuesday, officials said, at least the second such occurrence in the region in a week.
Roughly 30,000 to 40,000 menhaden fish, 6 to 8 inches long, were spread along the shore from DeBordieu Beach in Georgetown County, S.C., to Pawleys Island, a town on the state's Atlantic Coast, and thousands more were expected, Pawleys Island Police Chief Michael Fanning said.
Similar incidents have happened in the area before, including late last week when hundreds of thousands of the small, oily fish were washed ashore near Masonboro Island, N.C., and last year when an influx of dead starfish were found on the same beaches.
The fish were first spotted by beachgoers taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather.
"We came down to the beach for the day just to have, you know, a nice day on the beach, smell the fish smell, came down to look for shells and all these fish -- dead," Pawleys Island resident Pat Hawkins told NBC station WMBF in Myrtle Beach, S.C. "It's a shame. I don't know what's causing it."
Officials from the Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Department of Natural Resources visited the area Tuesday and took water samples in an effort to determine what killed the fish.
Marine experts determined the fish died from hypoxia, which occurs when the amount of oxygen in the water drops.
Pawleys Island Police
Thousands of dead fish washed up on a Pawleys Island, S.C., beach Tuesday afternoon.
Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said the occurrence was an entirely natural event.
“On Friday we had a new moon (which caused) real high high tides and real low low tides,” Bell told The Sun News. “Probably what happened was a school (of menhaden) got in an area of water on a high tide, in a hole or depression, and at low tide they were trapped and depleted the oxygen in the water. Then, all the fish would suffocate. Then, when the tide came back in, it washed the dead fish out and they washed up on the beach.”
"When it's one species like that, that's usually indicative of a low dissolved oxygen situation because they tend to be more fragile," added Dan Hitchcock, an assistant professor at the Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science at Clemson University in Georgetown, S.C.
Fanning said the city has no plans to clean up the fish and will let the seagulls and the tide clear the sand.
“We’re just dealing with it as a force of nature," Fanning said. "There are some residual fish, most of it has gotten washed away, there were a ton of birds down there. If you went down there (Thursday), you’d get more birds than fish.”
Menhaden fish, typically used by fishermen as bait, are a small, silver fish, whose oil is used in vitamin supplements, lipstick and livestock feed.
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I'm guessing they got what they came for!
Nothing like dry-fish, ask the Eskimo :)) Real Fiest :))
Just goes to prove that there are more menhaden around than scientist think.Preditors chase these large schools into the surf where they get so concentrated that they use up the oxygen and fall to the mercy of the tides and swell.Menhaden fishing vessels were once allowed to fish for them,thus keeping the species in check.More fish kills will take place as will shark attacks due to more and more fish spawning.The coastal beaches will not only stink,but the waters will be less safe.More food more sharks.
Good grief it is amazing how many people look at a picture and read the headline but never actually read the article. This had nothing to do with global warming, Bush, Obama, or Congress! It was a natural event caused by a high tides and fish getting trapped then depletting the oxygen from the water because there were too many.
That is what these people GUESSED happened...not what may have ACTUALLY happened. Dead fish and star fish have been washing up on this beach for weeks. If it were a natural occurrence then why is it still happening?
Well I believe the navy is testing Sonar again and this is what is occuring, JMO.
Well if there is a major bird die off in the next few days, we will know it was more than the article says...otherwise I might buy the explanation. I'm not a religious person, but the religious people among us would say that the devil is blinding us from the truth...so trust no one!
Its the navy and their damn soar blast!!
It's the navy and their damn sonar
i agree
They shoul can the fish and feed it to the navy.
It has to be the government testing bombs because all of the whales breaching/fish washing ashore has gotten very common. And many times the cause is the secret government bomb testing. For example, there was the show on T.V. that explained there was a whale breaching, and it was because of some underwater bomb, and in less than a half hour there were tape and officials there cleaning it up. They didn't want anyone to see the evidence.
Ya OK. Tin foil a bit loose today?
Has anyone done toxicology survey's of the fish?? Any nuclear power plants close by??Hmmmmmm....
here is more false ideas from the reppublicons. news CNN money morning
Fundamental and pragmatic banking regulations, which arose from the devastating financial collapses of the Great Depression, for decades strengthened U.S. banks and capital markets, making them the twin engines of American growth and the envy of the world.
The systematic dismantling of those same regulations by greedy bankers began in earnest in 1980, peaked in 1999, and finally climaxed with an insane Securities and Exchange Commission ruling in April 2004, a final decision that paved the way for the implosion of everything regulation was designed to protect.
oh and the war would pay for itself:
Nearly ten years since U.S. troops first entered Afghanistan, the report estimates the final cost of all three conflicts will be between $3.7 trillion and $4.4 (huffington post 2011)
shipping jobs to china will create a better economy since we have cheap goods and we become a consumer based economy instead of a production economy:
The explosion in low-wage job growth comes after the Great Recession hammered the mid-wage job sector. Some 60% of the jobs lost during the downturn were mid-wage, as opposed to 21% of low-wage and 19% of higher-wage positions.
The fastest growing low-wage jobs include retail salespeople, food prep workers, laborers
What does that have to do with dead fish in S.C.?
Great political flap jaw. Now what is the real story.
When ever something like this happens, some overly religiouse person thinks "the end is near!"
Oh well, Its just a few thousand worthless fish. Just like the starfish last time. Hell it happens all the time. Don't you know that? We see this kind of thing all the time, at least thats what the 'profesionals' say. Us stupid commoners just need to listen and learn to acccept it. All these people think pollution or globle warming has something to do with it. How stupid! Anyway these fish are only used as bait to catch eatin fish and ? wait if fish we eat, eat these type fish, what will they eat now? What the*#%&^@? We can just eat somethin else, like beef or chicken, They only need corn and grass, well maybe the grass will do cause corn crops have been hurt by the weather and the price of corn has hit an all time high. We do need the corn to mix with gas to offset the high prices of oil. YADA YADA YADA. Just keep believing the 'experts'. Soon we can hear them tell us why all the starving poor people are laying all over the streets. Hell don't you know, happens all the time. Listen to the 'experts'.
This is an obvious result of the Obama Gun Grab. Fish are smart.
Assault weapons victims???
If only the killer had registered... it could have been prevented.
@ Uncle Bill, cc Gov Como
It's a State problem and the Feds should confine themselves to running the country in the ditch and quit using the Constitution for a door mat.
Welcome to the Unit. State of America.
Since everyone is guessing I will take a stab at it. This is most likely the same reason they can't figure out why all the dolphins are washing up along gulf shore beaches. It's no big secret a very large amount of the oil spilled in the gulf by BP eventually worked its way around the tip of Florida and into the gulf stream. What we are seeing is only the beginning of dead fish washing up on beaches all along the eastern U.S. and eventually western European shores. It should surprise me that there are plenty making sarcastic comments and laughing about this but it doesn't. The ignorance and/or stupidity of these people stopped amazing me long ago. If there is one person left in the world that will deny global warming due to pollution from man then you are either an ignorant fool or just plain stupid.
they might make good fertizer? I can't see getting excited about these fish when Mexico is just ruining the schools of tuna along Baja... they line up dozens of canning ships where the fish migrate and net all they can. Now that I'm not happy about.
BP-many, many more years of this BS. The ocean in that area is teeming with oil from the spill in 2010.
Confiscate all the fishing poles and limit the number of hooks that can be sold.
Methinks Al Gore sucked up all the air. He has been hypoxic since birth.
Free fertilizer anyone.
Not an intelligenty reply, but then again none have been.
Yes people who live on the ocean front or have cottages have waged a war against commercial fishermen along the Carolina coast. they did not like seeing the boats netting the shad close to shore. This shut down most of the fleets that were fishing these fish. Now there are so many menhaden the schools will get in waters that can not supply enough oxygen for them to live. There will be many more fish kills up and down the Carolinas in the future. I hope the wealthy people are happy now.
" Menhaden are probably the fish that the indigenous tribes urged the Pilgrims to plant along with their corn as fertilizer. " Dang those corn/ethanol producers for not following sound advice....
Undoubtedly one of our patriotic oil company's tanker from TEXAS emtied its garbage can.
I've seen a similar case in the seventies on the shore of the Ontario. It was a stench I remember forever.
The locals explained it, that a very strong storm the night before smashed the fish agains the cement pier that reached in the lake near a mile. Those things are God-Made. The one here is the Devil' Work. (AKA Oil Companies)
As a proponent of climate change, even I understand that hypoxia in marine environments is a naturally occurring event. It has always happened with regularity and will continue to do so. This is not some crazy climate change related tragedy. Any marine biologist, even liberal/green ones like myself, will confirm it happens.
To wtw of KC:
"Well let me see, I’ll try to explain what is happening to the oxygen in the water. “Lose C", carbon (from excessive air pollution) in the air is combining with O2, oxygen in the water, creating CO2. Therefore, more air pollution = more CO2 in the air = less oxygen in the water = dead fish on our beaches. Simple, isn’t it?
Accordingly, I conclude that we are to blame for the death of the fish via the increase in the air “polluting” carbon and resulting increase in CO2. This is also responsible for the Climate Warming, increases in sea levels and bigger than ever hurricanes. Mr. Gore is talking about this extensively all the time, should listen to him sometimes. LOL!!!!"
First, I am hoping that this was a sarcastic comment, but for those who might not have a basic understanding of high school chemistry and thus might take it seriously: "lose" (sic) carbon in the air cannot combine with oxygen in the water to "create" CO2. On the other hand, increased ocean temperatures reduce the solubililty of CO2 in the water, thus releasing it into the atmosphere. Note that those of Mr. Gore's ilk try to make the claim that this cause-and-effect is reversed--that is, increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere somehow cause the increase in ocean temperatures. They point to historic graphs in which the spikes in temperature parallel the spikes in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The "inconvenient truth" they fail to mention is that "zooming in" to increase the resolution of these graphs shows that the temperature spikes actually slightly precede the CO2 concentration spikes--thus indicating that the increased ocean temp is the cause, and the increased atmospheric CO2 concentration is the effect--NOT the other way around. This dates back thousands of years--before CO2 concentration was measured, the documentation is the more vigorous tree growth during years of higher CO2 levels, indicated by wider spacing between the growth rings of the trees.
I have only one thing to say, BP....
Perhaps a Mayan Calendar thing. These fish were Mayan.