Hundreds of residents were left concerned when came across thousands of maasbanker fish floating dead in the V&A Waterfront Marina. The Two Oceans Aquarium has since come and explained what was behind this unusual phenomenon and has started the clean-up process.
According to the Two Oceans Aquarium, it is suspected that the fish were possibly herded into the Marina by humpback whales feeding just outside the harbour. As a result, the fish started dying because they used up all of the oxygen in the basin.
According to V&A Waterfront spokesperson Donald Kau, in addition to fish being herded into the marina by humpback whales, the V&A Waterfront Marine Wildlife Management team also noted a high number of mackerel entering the harbour at the same time, which further impacted the Oxygen levels.
“We also saw a large school of mackerel entering the harbour, and the high volume of fish obviously impacted on the levels of oxygen in the water, causing the fish to die”, said Kau, as reported by IOL.
“It is also confirmed that the school of mackerel was followed by a pair of humpback whales, so the harbour basin literally had a ‘system overload’,” Kau added.
All of these factors lead to the inevitable death of the thousands of maasbanker fish seen over the past week.
It’s not all bad news though, as the dead fish were essentially turned into an all you can eat buffet for the Cape fur seals and the seagulls, which is why you might have noticed an increase in wildlife activity around the harbour over the last few days.
Now, it looks as though the process of removing the thousands of dead fish has begun. The V&A Waterfront has confirmed that its Marine Wildlife Management team is currently removing the dead fish.
Picture: Twitter/@2OceansAquarium