In a world full of shortages and price spikes we could use all the help we can get. However, with mass animal deaths, year-old food stuck in shipping containers, animals getting diseases, and all the farmlands being purchased, but no farming is going on – things look a little bleak.
We’ve heard of incidences where tons of beef or chicken and seafood get recalled due to some bacteria outbreak. The recall also extends to vegetables frozen or fresh, but when you’ve got a mix of these things all together at once it creates the perfect storm.
We’ve all heard of mass fish death where tons of fish and sea life will wash ashore and make the entire place reek of rotten fish. We’ve also seen fish mysteriously fall from the sky before. Lots of sea life has been washed ashore and found dead such as whales, turtles, fish, jellyfish, and others.
However, as of last month, we can now add anchovies to this list. One night Britt Gerhard and her husband heard a thump on top of their home in San Francisco around 8:00 p.m. It was so loud that they thought it was an earthquake.
The couple later looked around outside to see a silver gleam covering the ground everywhere. It was around 20 to 30 fish, and they all came falling out of the sky.
Last week, a similar occurrence happened when occupants in the Bay Area detailed that a few thousand dead anchovies had to be picked up around 30 miles north, on the shore of the Bolinas Lagoon. The occurrences might appear eerie to some or something out of the ordinary. To others, it’s a sign of the times since the Bible speaks of such things.
However, researchers come to the rescue as they always do to disprove everything. They say that they have a completely rational answer, and that’s that the anchovy populace off the California coast is booming, and there are simply too many anchovies. They say it’s possible that those that were washed ashore were probably being chased by a predator into the shallow tidal pond waters, where they tried to stall the threat out, but ran out of oxygen. As per Santora, a marine biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"*" indicates required fields
According to Santora, anchovies are a win-and-fail type of animal group. At times they can thrive, and the populace can be booming – like now – and at others, the populace can get really slim, but researchers don’t know exactly why. In any case, due to this explosive boom, it has created a feasting ground for predators such as whales and seagulls who enjoy sardines.
But what about the fish that fell from the sky? Santora has an explanation for that as well. He noted that most likely the fish were being carried by seagulls who dropped them mid-flight.
Staff members with Marin County Parks, which deals with the lagoon, said that the greater part of the sardines had been washed back out to the ocean or been eaten, but apparently, that didn’t help the smell. The spectacle had provided a quick peek into the marvels of life under the sea.
“We don’t usually get to see how many fish are in the ocean,” said Max Korten, director, and general manager for Marin County Parks. “It’s kind of amazing.”
So, there we have it, tons of anchovies kicked the bucket. If you see your canned anchovies price spike again – you’ll at least know why now.