Heal the Bay Blog
With the massive fish kill in Redondo’s King Harbor earlier this week, the most pressing issue now is the clean-up. It’s critical that all the dead fish are removed within the next couple of days to prevent an even worse problem.
Fish Kill Cleanup: Volunteer!
- For information on how and when to volunteer, contact the Redondo Beach CERT Hotline at 310.318.8111
- Cleanups efforts vary, please call to receive correct instructions
- Water, food, sunscreen will be provided to volunteers
More News, Photos & Videos
- Redondo Beach fish die-off: Tests show oxygen levels at ‘almost zero’
Los Angeles Times- Millions of dead fish float to surface at California harbor
USA Today- Millions of dead fish at King Harbor in Redondo Beach
Los Angeles Times- Dead Anchovies Wash Up On Redondo Beach
Huffington Post- Billions of dead fish invade Redondo’s King Harbor Marina
Pasadena Star News
To volunteer for the Redondo Beach fish cleanup, please contact the Redondo Beach CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Hotline at 310-318-8111 for information on how and when to volunteer. Cleanups efforts do vary so you must call to receive correct instructions. Information is updated at 8 p.m. each night.
Water, food and sunscreen will be provided to volunteers. No experience or supplies are required — only enthusiasm. Volunteers are needed throughout the weekend.
In the meantime, scientists are analyzing samples of fish and water to determine the cause of the die-off in King Harbor. Heal the Bay is monitoring the situation through colleagues at the Redondo Beach SEA Laboratory and the University of Southern California.
Samples will be analyzed for the presence of any harmful algae, though early reports indicate there is no discoloration of the water to indicate massive amounts of algae. It has been reported that dissolved oxygen levels in the water are extremely low, meaning there is limited oxygen for fish to breathe in the water.
Heal the Bay will continue to monitor the situation and will offer updates as we receive more details. According to Brent Schiewe, director of the SEA Lab, very large schools of baitfish were seen in all the harbor’s basins the day before the fish kill, possibly due to the storm.
As the father of an 11-year-old daughter, I end up going to a lot of movies that would never make my must-see list. This weekend, I was one of the many parents that took in “Rango.” I actually enjoyed the film, and I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarities between my life and this latest animated feature from Nickelodeon. As life goes on, the parallels between art and life are easier to find, but “Rango” hit pretty close to the mark.
Over 25 years ago, as a master’s student at UCLA, my field work focused on the behavioral ecology of lizards. I know… kind of a shock for a water guy. The field site for my research on lizard escape behavior (a major theme of the film) was in beautiful Desert Center — a remote outpost off Interstate 10, halfway between Indio and Blythe. The connections between Desert Center and the fictional town of Dirt in the movie are eerie.
There was an oil spill Tuesday morning just north of Faria Beach in Ventura County. Officials responded to a camper who saw hundreds of gallons of oil seeping onto the beach. At this time, the source of the oil is still unknown although it is believed to be coming from the oil fields nearby.
Photo: lsgcp via Flickr
About UsHeal the Bay AquariumLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
Finescale Triggerfish
The Finescale Triggerfish (Balistes polylepis) is the latest resident of the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium’s Beneath the Pier exhibit. Triggerfish are usually associated with tropical water, but their range stretches from San Francisco all the way to Peru. This fish has a feisty reputation and reportedly has been seen attacking sharks. Our triggerfish was shy at first, but has lately been seen coming right up to the glass, seemingly to check out our visitors and making it hard to tell who is observing whom.
Fun Facts
Triggerfish are often found in caves and crevices, but are also seen swimming in the open along the sandy bottom adjacent to rocky reefs and in waters as shallow as 10 feet. With powerful jaws and a set of eight teeth on each jaw, this fish is equipped to eat spiny sea urchins, small crustaceans, mollusks and other animals that are normally protected by a shell or armor.
The finescale triggerfish can reach a length of up 30 inches and usually weighs up to 10 pounds. The largest reported specimen was 16 pounds. Fossils of finescale triggerfish teeth dated at 25 million years old have been found in Santa Ana and Bakersfield.
Some triggerfish are toxic if eaten, but the finescale triggerfish has never been found to be toxic. Still the finescale doesn’t show up on the dinner table often because their tough hide makes it difficult to skin.
To get checked out by our finescale triggerfish, visit our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.
photo by Nick Fash
If you live in the Palisades, you might notice construction on PCH beginning today. Don’t get frustrated by the slow traffic though. Instead, take a minute to drive slowly and be grateful for the new pipes that will funnel urban runoff from storm drains to the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant (during dry weather, not during rain).
Without the diversions, that water would flow directly across our beaches and into the ocean, carrying with it chemicals and high levels of bacteria that could make you sick.
These low flow diversions are an important part of making sure that during dry weather all of the beaches in the Santa Monica Bay are safe for swimming.
They’re being paid for by Prop O, a 2004 water bond approved by California voters that dedicated $500 Million to cleaning up some of California’s most polluted beaches (some of which, unfortunately, are local).
You can learn more about Prop O, and the local projects it funds, at lapropo.org.
The city of Santa Monica is celebrating the return of its local water supply. In a classic David vs. Goliath case, Santa Monica took on Big Oil to restore the people’s rights to a clean, local water supply. The combination of leaking underground gasoline storage tanks and the addition of MTBE as an oxygenate in gasoline led to massive contamination of Santa Monica’s Charnock well field in the mid 1990s. The groundwater pollution left Santa Monica completely reliant on high priced MWD water imported from the Delta and the Colorado River. Until the wells were shut off in 1996, approximately 70% of the city’s water supply came from local groundwater. After an incredibly hard fought litigation and negotiations, Shell Oil (the biggest aquifer polluter), ExxonMobil and Chevron settled with the city for about $250 million.
In a world that seems increasingly dominated by Big Oil, Santa Monica stood up to the polluters and successfully fought for one of our basic human rights: clean water.
About UsHeal the Bay AquariumLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
Editor’s note: Nick Fash is one of two teachers at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. He and colleague Aaron Kind educate as many as 600 students in a week. Nick chronicles a day in the life of an Aquarium education specialist.
Entering the Aquarium first thing in the morning, flipping on the lights, the quiet tranquility is only broken by the soothing sound of water flowing through pipes. This will all change in one short hour when 60 excited children will fill this space with ohhs, ahhs and countless wide-eyed questions. But many things need to get done over the next 60 minutes in order for those children to have “one of the best days ever!”
Checking the schedule, noting the age of the students, their number and the topic for the class, Aaron and I begin to formulate our plan. We have been doing this for years and can effortlessly communicate the details: setting up the hands-on lab, placing the whale bones out, matching the signage to the different marine mammal skulls on display and prepping the classroom with the correct number of tables and chairs. By the time the covers are removed from the touch tanks, we are ready to prep our wonderful education docents on what we will need from them and when we will need it done. We are lucky to have such a devoted team backing us up, as 60 energized students is quite a handful for just the two of us.
We swing open the patio doors, letting the ocean air into the Aquarium and go about hanging the kelp forest barriers that effectively create a private outdoor addition to our space. And just in time, a big yellow school bus rumbles to a stop outside of our front door, every window lined with faces, with eyes as wide as can be.
Greeting the teachers we confirm the details and run them through our plan. As the students gather at the front door, I give the excited students a quick walk through of the rules and the expectations we have for our young ”scientists,” and as I swing the doors open I must watch my toes as the children eagerly flow into the Aquarium. Many hands are in the touch tanks, all the while rattling off questions at a dizzying pace. A group of students learns about sharks around our open top shark exhibit, while others have their faces pressed up against the glass of the sea jelly exhibit. Twenty minutes later we split our group into two small teams.
One group lines up with Aaron by the front door, where they will be heading for the beach to discover animals in their natural habitat and to learn about impacts of pollution on the sandy beach environment. The other half tiptoes into the Green Room where we have live tide pool animals ready for them to really get to know. As they sit quietly on the floor, their eyes fixed upon me, wondering what I am going to say, I begin. “Where do all of my animals come from?” As we learn about habitats, whales, sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and a host of other animals from our local waters, I remind them that they are our neighbors and if we keep our neighborhoods clean, their home will be clean as well.
But the radio belches out Aaron’s 3-minute warning, and I line up the students for our turn at the beach. As we pass Aaron and his group on the way in, the students swap excited stories of what they had just experienced, but the beach awaits. Sand crabs, bean clams, kelp, birds and the occasional dolphin or sea lion can all be expected while we dig through the sand and explore the beach in a way many of these children have never done before.
As we line the students up to clean their hands and gather their belongings, we are already mentally prepping for our next class, as we have just 30 minutes before we do this all over again. Thank you coffee.
photos by Maita Moura
View all Earth Month events and updates.
Heal the Bay celebrates each Earth Day in a big way — by turning it into a whole month. For the entire month of April, we embody the catch phrase “Earth Day is every day.” Our month is choc-full of great events for all ages, cleanups, tablings and more. We welcome volunteers to join us in April to get their hands dirty, meet a few new friends in your community and learn all about the Santa Monica Bay at our Aquarium.
Check out our upcoming opportunities by downloading our Earth Month flyer or visiting our Google Map:
April 16
Nothin’ But Sand
Volunteer for beach cleanups at one of two locations
10am to Noon
• WILL ROGERS STATE BEACH
17700 Pacific coast Highway at Temescal Canyon ($1 parking)
• TORRANCE BEACH
201 Paseo de la Playa, Torrance, CA 90501 ($6 parking)
April 16-17
santa monica pier aquarium earth Month celebration
Enjoy special Earth Day activities and family fun
11am to 6pm both days
• SANTA MONICA PIER AQUARIUM
1600 Ocean Front Walk, Santa Monica, CA 90401 ($3 admission/$5 suggested donation, children 12 & under free)
April 30
the great L.A. River cleanup/la gran limpieza
Join Heal the Bay and PAVA to help FoLAR win the Urban River Challenge
9am to Noon
• RIO DE LOS ANGELES STATE PARK
1555 N. San Fernando Rd, Los Angeles, 90065
Earth Day Events Sponsored by
Nothin’ But Sand Sponsored by
Washington Elementary, a Heal the Bay partner school in Compton, just sent its 4th graders camping. Thanks to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the students spent two nights at King Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The key to inspiring environmental advocacy is to expose kids, at a young age, to the nature all around them. For these kids, many of whom have never left home, the oak woodlands and chaparral will be a unforgettable part of their childhood.
“Kids learn about science and nature by experiencing it first-hand,” said Jamie Cabral, Chief of Education and Interpretation of the MRCA. “They are so excited to be outside in the dark and feel their eyes adjust as they look up at the stars. They can’t believe how quiet it is at camp. They begin to understand that nature is all around us.”
The MRCA has run outdoor camps for local kids for over 25 years, providing environmental education, standards-based learning and old-fashioned camp fun.
Heal the Bay is also partnering with Washington Elementary as part of our Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Environment initiative. The school has also just completed a tree-planting project with Tree People. All part of creating a generation of young people who care deeply about the world around them.