Cleanup organized for Santa Cruz Harbor after fish kill
First it was white croakers in La Selva Beach, then sardines in Capitola, now it's anchovies in Santa Cruz. A massive school of anchovies swam into the Santa Cruz yacht harbor Wednesday night and suffocated to death.
"We were just really inundated by a big school of fish that overwhelmed the air capacity of our aerating system," harbor master John Haynes said.
Armed with nets, workers skimmed the ocean surface between the docks Thursday and filled giant dumpsters. There were thousands of dead fish floating on the surface, but there were thousands more dead on the bottom.
The harbor master is asking for help and volunteers. If you'd like to help with the cleanup, show up at the harbor on Friday at 7 a.m. with a net, and they'll put you to work.
"Please come down and help clean up our harbor. We need to do this quickly before they start to stink and the whole city suffers," SUP Shack Santa Cruz owner Trudie Ransom said.
"Normally, we wait for the die off to finish and they float to the surface. We'll try and get ahead of that by trolling the bottom of the harbor," Stephen Reed, Santa Cruz Port Commission Chairman, said.
"There's more fish than we can handle at this point. We have more people showing up, but there's still a lot of fish," port engineer Mike Hopper said.
The harbor remained open while the clean up process continued, but some merchants believe business won't do well this weekend because of the stinky smell.
Before the fish died, they created a dazzling sight while they were swimming toward the harbor and thousands of shearwater birds dove after them on Wednesday afternoon.
Videographer Archer Koch captured the action from above with his drone. Watch below or mobile users click here.