Sardines by the millions hit beach

Deepa Bharath

They packed the beach like sardines. Wait a minute. They were

sardines. Tons of them.

The silvery dead fish washed up by the millions onto the beach

Thursday night, piled one on top of the other between 13th and 24th

streets. It was an event city officials said they haven’t see in at

least the last 20 years.

City workers cleaned up the fishy mess Friday morning, Newport

Beach Deputy General Services Director Mike Pisani said.

“We hauled three tons of sardines off the beach this morning,” he

said.

It took three hard-working people, two mechanical beach cleaners

and a dump truck to cart the sardines to the county landfill.

The fish covered a 20-foot-wide band along the beach, Pisani said.

“Most of the fish came in late last night with the high tide,” he

said.

Lifeguard Brian O’Rourke said it was a rare sight.

“They were light in some areas and dense in others,” he said.

Lifeguards had a couple of theories on how and why the fish washed

up, O’Rourke said.

“We were guessing that either a fishing boat dumped them because

their bait died, or the water was too warm for them to survive in,”

he said.

The second theory is probably closer to being right, said Joel

Cassara, program director at the Long Beach Marine Institute.

“Sardines normally do school in millions,” he said. “So I would

rule out that they were bait.”

The event was probably a direct effect of southern storms, which

are causing whirlwind changes in water temperatures and currents

which may be dragging in toxic plankton or other harmful food supply

into local waters, Cassara said.

Water temperatures were averaging 65 degrees throughout the

summer, he said.

“Yesterday, the temperature shot up to 75 degrees,” Cassara said.

“That causes breathing problems for the fish because the oxygen

transfers directly from the water to the gills.”

And when the rate at which the oxygen is transferred changes

because of the temperature within a 10-hour period, the fish run into

problems adjusting to that change, he said.

California’s waters are usually warmer compared to other oceans of

the world, Cassara said.

“That’s why a lot of animals have a good time surviving,” he said.

Unless the ocean pulls some vile trick on them.

* DEEPA BHARATH is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at

deepa.bharath@latimes.com.