Posted on 03/30/2025 2:33:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Anchovies are again invading the Santa Cruz Harbor for the second time in just months and this time, harbor leaders don’t have a key piece of equipment to combat the problem because that equipment is in the shop for routine maintenance.
“It's totally unseasonal for these fish to be here this time of year,” said assistant harbormaster Sean Rothwell.
Advertisement The fish bait started appearing in large numbers a couple of weeks ago and usually, when the anchovies show up in droves the harbor turns on its aerators to pump oxygen into the water, but they were taken out of the water for seasonal maintenance.
“We ran those for seven months last year, and every year we have to take them out and do regular maintenance on them, so we plan that around the off-season, the wintertime, the cooler temperatures when it's not likely to be needed,” Rothwell said.
Lake San Antonio fish die-off.Lake San Antonio to reopen this week after large fish die-off The hope is they won’t be needed this go around.
“So if we start getting closer to the danger levels of oxygen, we may be able to do something about that and get the pumps in quicker, but right now, it's really not calling for it,” Rothwell said.
That's because oxygen readings appear to be okay in large part because of the cooler temperatures and heavy tidal movements in and out of the harbor, plus, the anchovies show no immediate signs of stress.
“They'll be kind of frantically jumping around, and we're not seeing that type of stress on the fish right now, and I think that has a lot to do with just the cooler temperatures and the decent levels of oxygen in the water,” Rothwell said.
Some anchovies have already started dying off, but not in the large numbers that were seen back in October, which resulted in a huge clean-up effort.
For now, harbor leaders are closely monitoring the situation and routinely checking the oxygen levels in the harbor water, but the hope is that the anchovies will simply move onto deeper water.
NIMNT....
Classic, +1.
Son, your pizza edumacation done been neglected!
Anchovies with small nyons olives are a standard pizza in the south of France around Nice. I’m remembering one I had in Biot some years ago. And anchovies on pizza have been a common thing in the states forever, anywhere that gets beyond Pizza Hut.
Yes—that was “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers.” The original Nick Danger was on “How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All.”
Yep. I still like a bit of FT now and then.
I love anchovies on pizza.
They’re also great for pasta puttanesca.
Maybe that's the problem, in my very rural area, we haven't even got up to Pizza Hut standards. For years, I though Oh Boy plain cheese frozen pizzas were the best!
See, *always* order “no anchovies”.
But wait, Marcos.
Hold the ‘chovies...
If people thought fowl play was bad, “swimmin’ wit’ da fishes” is much much worse, because... anchovies.
LOL, yep, that's the only draw back, the sodium content, other than that, bring it!
When the Moon makes you feel like a seagoing eel, that’s a moray.
😉
How would you feel if you then asked for a meal, and all you got was an eel. So not kosher!
Yeah 'cause otherwise,
Bells will ring, ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing, "Meet-a-brill-a"
Glad you liked it, tuna bout is fair play.
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