About 5 days ago, found their way into King Harbor in Redondo Beach, CA (near Los Angeles), used up all the oxygen, and died of suffocation. While the harbor tries to vacuum and scoop up the vast number of dead rotting fish, scientists are trying to figure out what happened in the first place. University of Southern California found that the gut contents of the dead sardines contained high levels of domoic acid, a powerful neurotoxin produced by the diatom (microscopic plant) Pseudo-nitzschia. Sardines feed by filtering plankton out of the water with their gills, so unlike other fish they are able to ingest toxic algae directly. Dr. Caron’s lab did not detect domoic acid inside King Harbor itself, but the fish might have eaten the toxic algae offshore, become disoriented, swum into the harbor, used up all the oxygen (a million fish use a LOT of oxygen), and died. I think that it is a cause for concern if these numbers of fish die of a toxin. Just think if the toxin is able to affect other fish and what will happen to them.
http://deepseanews.com/2011/03/dead-sardines-in-california-had-eaten-toxic-algae/
As sad as this is, I thought that the article was very interesting. I think the way that the fish died, was an interesting concept. This story has been very publicized, and I think that is a good thing, because it can start making people be more proactive in helping the environment. The fact that all these fish could have been poisoned or drowned, is quite unsettling to me. We need to figure out the true cause of why all of these millions of fish died. These types of things do not happen every day, and we need to find the root of the problem and stop it.
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