The night before last the Sebastian Inlet experienced a rare event, the folks in the park we talked to have never seen it happen in the past. We are parked right on the inlet and woke up yesterday morning to what sounded like rain. The noise was being made by Menhaden fish that packed the inlet which is a half mile long and several hundred yards wide. It looked like you could almost walk across the water on then. Evidently a huge school must have been in the ocean and got sucked into the inlet on the incoming tide. The fish nearest the sides of the inlet were forced into shallow water and and they quickly depleted the oxygen and massive amounts of them died. It took many hours for the school to get back to the ocean. The pelicans other sea birds were all gone for the day, evidently they gorged themselves on the fish and went somewhere to rest. Fishing for the anglers was futile as the game fish also had their fill. Menhaden are filter feeders that feed by straining plankton and alge from the water, predator fish love them and they are netted for fish meal and oil.
Stragglers still trying to get back to the ocean, comrades on their sides didn't make it.
Silver colored shoreline of menhaden
Ooh, water getting kind of high. This was today, fishing for pompano but only caught a catfish. Was 85 today and water comfortable.
No comments:
Post a Comment