Harbor Cleanup Update: Two Days to Go?

After two warm days, Harbor Drive began to reek of dead sardines.

Crews in Redondo's King Harbor Marina continued to work Thursday to remove the mass of decaying fish, and police Sgt. Phil Keenan estimated that the cleanup would be completed by the end of Saturday.

Workers and cleared the water of Wednesday, but when they arrived Thursday morning they found thousands of sardine carcasses floating on the surface.

“There was a carpet of fish,” Keenan said.

As the sardines, which became trapped and suffocated in the harbor Monday night, decay, they float to the surface.

Several tons of fish were pulled from the water Thursday, Keenan said. What was a two-foot-deep layer of fish on the ocean floor Tuesday has been reduced to three inches, he said.

“It’s much easier to get them off the surface than to go underneath to get them,” Keenan said. “However, we do have people from private contractors that are now on scene and setting up to vacuum the fish off the floor.”

The sardines are believed to have entered the harbor to get away from the strong winds, but suffocated when they piled up on one another and depleted the oxygen in the water.

Bill Adkins, who once lived on a boat in the marina, described the dead sardines as “nature at its best.”

“Marine [life] has been running aground throughout history. They end up on the beaches, on the shore. Something like this just happens. It's nature,” Adkins said. “But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

About the smell, Adkins said, “It’s going to get nasty.”