Thread: Mid summer 'fish kills'

This past week there have been intermittent reported 'fish kills' scattered along the beaches from near Ft. Morgan to Destin, including around the GSPPier.

Pictures and videos show primarily scaled sardines (of all sizes) with a few other species mixed in (spanish sardines and atlantic bumper).

They were reported in Gulf Shores and orange Beach Friday (7/15/16) by OBA (Orange Beach Community Website fb page):

We've had several people message us from Orange Beach to Gulf Shores about the dead fish on the beach.

It looks like we're experiencing a minor fish-kill. While we don't know what is causing this one, it is usually caused by low oxygen content in the water.

Ft Morgan video from "I Love Fort Morgan, Alabama" fb page: https://www.facebook.com/myran.rutla...3895154681939/

Saturday 7/16/16 Northwest Florida Daily News reports:
Dead fish litter the beach on Okaloosa Island - News - Northwest Florida Daily News - Fort Walton Beach, FL
FWC tests water where dead fish wash up - News - Northwest Florida Daily News - Fort Walton Beach, FL

Bekah Nelson, spokeswoman for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the agency has received several calls about dead fish washing up on local beaches.
“Biologists took water samples, but found not one bloom,” Nelson said.

from Dorothee Bennett fb page:


The water has been VERY calm this week with little or no wave action or wind (sustained) that would help oxygenate the water. At times like this the water temperature can quickly spike into the lower 90s and the warmer the water the less oxygen it holds.
Couple this with tightly packed schools of sardines and fish kills can occur quickly and the dead and dying fish are then deposited on shore by the rising early morning tides and light onshore breeze.

This is an annual event, right? Many-a time I've seen, in mid-summer, scaled sardines up at the top swimming in circles, in their death-throes. It's a dinner bell for jack crevalle and other predators! Low oxygen levels and lots of concentrated fish populations. It's nature at work!

It might be interesting to use the die-off as a predictor for the Jubilee in Mobile Bay. The factors are a slack wind, few waves, high temps, then a brief shower followed by a prevailing wind?

I know that conventional wisdom is that you can't predict these things, but it's not a supernatural event. There are natural reasons for the phenomenon. I think that it's predictable and a specific order of events have to take place. Those events just need to be fully identified and qualified, it seems, in their proper order or else it's a no-go on the Jubilee. On the other hand, when everything lines up, it's a go.

i told somebody on the pier a week or so ago it was about time for it to happen and tv 5 and 10 would be down making something big out of it