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.
The Whales you speak of are filter feeders which seals are not.
I love love love anchovies, I eat them right out of the tin!
You know they're playing hooky from school.
YES!!!
That's one of my favorite snacks. I've even gotten them with capers -- you don't get quite as much anchovy in the tin, but the capers are tasty too, in small doses.
I think my record was three tins in one sitting. I was salted up pretty good after that. LOL
Huh?! I’ve never heard of anchovies on pizza.
For lunch I had linguine with clam sauce. Wondering if trying it with anchovies sometime. Anchovies can be used for fermentation with soy for fish sauce. Nasty smelling liquid but a few drops adds in a nice base undertone flavor when cooking up marinara sauce. The fishy smell and taste cooks off.
“They never come up in the hills.”
(Connected, but on a different album. I used to listen to Firesign Theatre a lot.)
LMAO, that was pretty darn good, got me chuckling!
“Wandering leaderless and out of season...these anchovies must be the Democrats of the Sea.
Hope they don’t try to as-salt any Herring. Trump could treble the hook and tariffs on lutefisk. No lye.
Sorry, I got hooked on the headline and now I”m being sardinecastic.”
I don’t think anchovies are big enough for a seal to bother with
———
Many moons ago, back in the 70’swed buy anchovies at the bait shop and feed them to the seals. They seemed to love them.
RE: How many times were you held at knifepoint?
Zero. But I’ll get to that.
I have been a crime victim in various ways several times. But was not held at knifepoint.
My same car later had the accessible under hood engine compartment items totally trashed and stolen: spark plus cables, distributor cap, etc. when I parked it to go to Wayne State University.
Get this: This week I happened to remember that incident where I had a totally forbidden American flag decal on the car back window during the antiwar days in 1967. That’s why I was a victim.
When I thought of that, minutes later the talk radio host Christ Plante by chance happened to say “remember when we used to have those American flag decals on our car windows?”
Talking about the anti-Tesla protesters.
Shocking coincidence.
I’ve had many in my life. They call it “synchronicity.” No, I haven’t been on America’s Unsolved Mysteries yet.
So not held at knifepoint.
But my late wife and I were held at gun point. Among the beachgoers in Florida in 1998 when a trashy punk who had killed a woman earlier held all of us and demanded a way to get away. Some younger guys and I made a quiet plan to jump him is he walked to the left toward us. I had my wife slip under a car to hide.
She asked in a low voice what was happening. I answered: “If he comes this way we’re going to kill him.” She said: “If you get killed what good would that be for me to live without you.?” He happened to move the other way, grabbed a man in his 60s (as his wife screamed and nearly fainted), walked him away, grinning stupidly, police all standing down, took his car and the hostage and drove away. After some time the man was not killed and he was arrested at a house he invaded. 40-50 heavily armed officers surrounded his location.
One of the articles.
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1998/10/17/standoff-ends-peacefully/
You’ve led a blessed and sheltered life.
2019
“Pizza Hut’s decision to phase out anchovies from their menu was largely driven by changing consumer preferences. Over the years, anchovies have become less popular among pizza customers, leading to decreased demand for this topping.”
Another article called the anchovies on pizza “polarizing” for pizza fans.
Apparently Pizza Hut averted war.
Sure, a seal will love a free meal, but would they work for one?
That is, would they bother trying to catch them in the wild?
Seals don’t have nets.
“How many times were you held at knifepoint?”
Interesting question.
I once lived in a neighborhood where most of us carried switchblades, and sometimes guns.
Paramount CA, just across the river from Compton.
I’m a white kid living in the “Barrio”. I worked in the local Liquor store as a stock-boy and I also delivered booze to shut-ins.
Store owned by a Jew with a death camp number Tattooed on his left arm.
I rode a cheap racing ten speed everywhere.
Nobody ever messed with me.
I was always armed with something.
Adding fish sauce into a barbeque sauce recipe really makes it shine.
“a few drops adds in a nice base undertone flavor when cooking up marinara sauce. The fishy smell and taste cooks off.”
“It’s totally unseasonal for these fish to be here this time of year,” said assistant harbormaster Sean Rothwell. Sean, I think the final solution to the Anchovies invading the Santa Cruz Harbor question is the introduction of bullfrogs in the eco-system.
 | CЯUZIO |
| Send FReepmail if you want on/off the SANTA CЯUZ COUNTY CA ping list | |
 | |
| This is why we can't have nice things | |
| The List of Ping Lists | |
YGTBKM..........
Lute-fisk, lute-fisk; ya sure, you betcha! The easiest way to identify somebody from Minnesota back in the ‘70s.
Primost, kage,
Lutefisk and lefse
Ve like the Vikings
Ya you betcha!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.