Dead Fish Stink As Lagoon Fight Dredged Up
Written by 991KBU on August 28, 2018
They wore masks … but workers had to toil in incredible stench to remove about 2000 and bloated … decaying fish from the Malibu Lagoon yesterday.
About 1two thousand striped mullet and topsmelt fish began to float to the surface … upside down and dead … last Thursday morning.
State biologists say large groups of live fish have been observed schooling throughout the lagoon.
Fish death has largely been limited to the striped mullet.
State parks officials say they have observed no impacts to the special-status Southern California steelhead trout … or tidewater goby.
Relentless summer heat and the lack of fog along the coast this summer have caused the lagoon water temperature of the water to soar, according to chief ranger Craig Sap.
City manager Reva Feldman said the dead fish had to go.
NEWSCART 77687 FELDMAN LAGOON :14
QQQQ: WARM TEMPERATURES IN THE LAGOON.
“It’s my understanding from state parks that the dead fish have been removed, or in the process of being removed, that process started yesterday.
“There are about 2000 fish — (that) is the number that I have been provided with — that have died and they believe that is to warm temperatures in the Lagoon.”
The fish die-off was seized upon by opponents to the lagoon deepening … the controversial state parks project in 2012 to dredge the lagoon and deepen it.
That project probably keeps the water cooler … but activists like Andy Lyon say state parks needs to breach the lagoon sand berm to let the warm lagoon water out … and cooling ocean water in.
NEWSCART 77688 ANDY LYON :14 QQQ; THAT LAGOON IS RIGHT NOW.
“This is something that we need to go into go back in an take care of.
“It’s a major disaster, I was down there yesterday hundreds and hundred of people walking in there,
“The smell is insane, I tell people they should go back there and look at what a disaster that Lagoon is right now.”
City council men Jefferson Wagner said last night that he had gone to the Santa Monica Bay restoration commission last week … and said the lack of a breach at the Lagoon was bad state policy.
NEWSCART 77686 WAGNER :24 QQQ: NECESSARY BREACH AT THIRD POINT.
“Not knowing about the fish die off which occurred a few days later, I had mentioned that the turbidity of the lagoon was an issue, and the heat was an issue, not knowing of course the fish die-off would happen.
“But I kind of predicted it, and I keep asking therefore DPR to address the situation of the necessary breach at Third Point.”
Surfers have been asking for the Lagoon to be breached … which would wash sand out into the surf points.
State Parks has refused … saying it would disrupt bird nests on the beach … and disrupt the natural order of things.
