Victorville Composting Firm Turns 75 Tons Of Sardines Into Fertilizer

VICTORVILLE (AP) — The massive fish die-off in a King Harbor is benefiting a Mojave Desert composting firm that is recycling the stinking haul for use as fertilizer.

Trucks had brought about 75 tons of rotting sardines to Victorville's American Organic site in the first four days of the cleanup at King Harbor in Redondo Beach. The city says cleanup of 140 tons of dead sardines was completed Sunday.

The American Organic general manager Dean Johnson tells the Victorville Daily Press that the fish will be used as fertilizer.

Biologists from the University of Southern California and the state Department of Fish and Game have said critically low oxygen levels in the water caused the sardines to suffocate on March 7.

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