A faulty pipe spilled 233 thousand gallons of molasses into Honolulu Harbor, and it's killing scores of fish.
"There may be thousands of fish that have died from this spill so far," Gary Gill of the Department of Health, told Hawaii News Now.
The molasses came from a Matson tanker that was en route to California.
The sticky substance sank to the bottom of the harbor, and is sucking up all of the oxygen. Fish are rushing to shallow waters near the shore to try to breath.
"We're seeing thousands of them. A lot of fish that are in that very stressed situation in very shallow water. We're seeing reef fish you'd never see. Butterfly fish, eels, etc... all right up next to the shoreline," Reef biologist Dave Gulko from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii News Now reported.
Oils can be skimmed off the top of the water, but since molasses sinks it may be harder to clean up. It is unknown how long it will take for the situation to be brought under control.
"It's in a bay, so there's not a lot of circulation, so you're not going to have flushing of this water out," biologist David Field told Hawaii News Now, via affiliate CNN. "So, in this area where the spill occurred, we're going to see the effects probably for a long time."
"As water does leave this bay area and goes out into the neighboring ocean, we can expect the effects in the long term, in days, weeks, months and probably years, to spread out over some of the soft-shore reefs," he said.
Discoloration in the water was reported after the Matson ship left the harbor.
"Matson regrets that the incident impacted many harbor users as well as wildlife. We are taking steps to ensure this situation does not happen again," Matson said in a statement, Hawaii News Now reported.
Humans are warned to stay away from the sticky water as well.
"While molasses isn't a pollutant that can harm people directly, it is killing the fish and that can cause an increase in sharks and barracuda and eels and that can be harm to the public," Gill said.
The spill is projected to cost Matson $25,000 a day for the cleanup and as a penalty for violating the Clean Water Act.
In 1919 a burning-hot molasses spill killed 21 people in Boston after 2.5 million gallons of the stuff burst from a storage container and flooded the streets, History reported.
The flow was so strong it knocked down the local firehouse and supporting structures for overhead train tracks.
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