T
The Fish Assassin
Guest
From the T/C.
Tourists who flock to Pacific Rim National Park and surrounding beaches for the sand and the surf are getting an unexpected bonus -- the stench from thousands of rotting fish.
On Sunday, dozens of Humboldt squid washed up on Chesterman and Long beaches, to the amazement of tourists from all over the world.
The dead squid were odd but the discovery Tuesday of hundreds of dead sardines and herring washing up on the same beaches is bizarre.
Local biologist Josie Osborne calls this week's marine phenomenon baffling. "It's very alarming," Osborne, who works for the Raincoast Education Society, said yesterday.
She estimated the total number of squid and fish on the beach as in the low thousands. The sight, and smell, has an impact on locals and tourists, Osborne said.
"Most people are quite shocked and everybody wants to know why," Osborne said. "A couple of people have asked me, 'When are they coming to clean it up?' My answer is, 'Honey, nobody's coming to clean it up.' "
It might be shocking, said Osborne, but it has happened before in B.C. and elsewhere. In 2004, between 1,000 and 1,500 squid washed onto beaches along the southwest coast of Washington state.
One possible cause is a deadly fish disease called viral hemorrhagic septicemia. Since Humboldt squid travel in groups of about 1,200, it's possible all could have succumbed to an illness.
Osborne has sent some of the fish off for analysis to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' biological station in Nanaimo.
It's possible the fish suffocated when they hit an area of water with insufficient oxygen, said Osborne. A pocket of cold water could also have killed them.
"It would be easy to assume that the squid washing ashore and the sardines washing ashore were linked, but that's not necessarily so," she said.
When he heard about the fish on the news, Dave Pettinger, general manager and co-owner of Pacific Sands Resort, checked out Cox Bay and found "very few" dead fish.
Pettinger said the squid were interesting to examine. "I've never seen squid washed up like that in all my years here."
The smell of rotting fish might put off tourists on affected beaches, but the buffet of free food has attracted hundreds of sea birds. "The gulls are all over the fish, but they're not touching the squid," said Osborne. "I would say they've never encountered them before. They don't know what they are."
Take only what you need.
Tourists who flock to Pacific Rim National Park and surrounding beaches for the sand and the surf are getting an unexpected bonus -- the stench from thousands of rotting fish.
On Sunday, dozens of Humboldt squid washed up on Chesterman and Long beaches, to the amazement of tourists from all over the world.
The dead squid were odd but the discovery Tuesday of hundreds of dead sardines and herring washing up on the same beaches is bizarre.
Local biologist Josie Osborne calls this week's marine phenomenon baffling. "It's very alarming," Osborne, who works for the Raincoast Education Society, said yesterday.
She estimated the total number of squid and fish on the beach as in the low thousands. The sight, and smell, has an impact on locals and tourists, Osborne said.
"Most people are quite shocked and everybody wants to know why," Osborne said. "A couple of people have asked me, 'When are they coming to clean it up?' My answer is, 'Honey, nobody's coming to clean it up.' "
It might be shocking, said Osborne, but it has happened before in B.C. and elsewhere. In 2004, between 1,000 and 1,500 squid washed onto beaches along the southwest coast of Washington state.
One possible cause is a deadly fish disease called viral hemorrhagic septicemia. Since Humboldt squid travel in groups of about 1,200, it's possible all could have succumbed to an illness.
Osborne has sent some of the fish off for analysis to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' biological station in Nanaimo.
It's possible the fish suffocated when they hit an area of water with insufficient oxygen, said Osborne. A pocket of cold water could also have killed them.
"It would be easy to assume that the squid washing ashore and the sardines washing ashore were linked, but that's not necessarily so," she said.
When he heard about the fish on the news, Dave Pettinger, general manager and co-owner of Pacific Sands Resort, checked out Cox Bay and found "very few" dead fish.
Pettinger said the squid were interesting to examine. "I've never seen squid washed up like that in all my years here."
The smell of rotting fish might put off tourists on affected beaches, but the buffet of free food has attracted hundreds of sea birds. "The gulls are all over the fish, but they're not touching the squid," said Osborne. "I would say they've never encountered them before. They don't know what they are."
Take only what you need.
