Marine biologists worked Monday to determine whether a recent Southern California heat wave, lack of oxygen in the water or other factors might have caused the death of thousands of fish along the coastal waters of Marina del Rey, according to the Associated Press.
California Fish and Wildlife workers continued to remove the dead anchovies and stingrays that created a silvery blanket on the water's surface and a pungent smell that set off a feeding frenzy among harbor seals, pelicans and seagulls, the AP reported. An octopus was also found among the dead sea life.
The incident is likely the result of a confluence of factors, said Dana Roeber Murray, a marine and coastal scientist with the environmental group Heal the Bay, according to the AP.
"They're not unheard of," Murray said, the AP reported. "I would not tie it to a big indicator that bad things are happening in our environment. It's more like a multitude of circumstances happening at once."
Anchovies travel in large schools and may have been pushed into the shallower, semi-enclosed waters of the marina by extreme tides caused by a recent full moon, according to the AP.
With so many fish in the water during last week's heat wave, it's also possible there was a low amount of dissolved oxygen and increased temperatures that hurt their chances of survival, Murray said, the AP reported.
With numerous boats and reduced water circulation, such marinas are more likely to harbor pollution, bacteria and other toxins, Murray said, according to the AP. Similar fish die-offs occurred in Ventura Harbor and at Redondo Beach in 2011.
