Fishy Situation Causes Quite A Stink In Marina Del Rey

MARINA DEL REY (CBSLA.com) — Some Marina Del Rey residents have a stinky situation on their hands.

A heap of dead fish washed up along the shore Saturday night, prompting dozens of people to report the ensuing stench to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The fish, consisting mostly of anchovies, floated to the surface of the water near Ballona Creek on the coast.

"They come in here, it's warmer in the harbor than it is out out front, so they have more plankton, more stuff to eat. I think that's why they're here," local bait shop owner Mike Spears said. "And they just trapped themselves."

The fish came to surface at Basin A of the marina, near Bora Bora Way.

"It's a dead end here, right at the end of the basin, where all the animals accumulated, and they just suffocated," Marine Mammal Center's Peter Wallerstein said.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife have been called in to clean up the fish.

Harbor seals, pelicans, and seagulls, on the other hand, were attracted to the harbor to feast on the fish.

Wallerstein did say, however, that such events have happened in the harbor in the past, and on a larger scale, such as a large fish die-off which occurred in Marina Del Rey and Ventura Harbors in 2011.

At 10 p.m. Sunday, KCAL's Brittney Hopper said the smell of the dead anchovies and marine life was still unbearable -- hours after the majority of the dead fish were hauled away.

"I've been here for about 20 years and this is the first time I've seen a fish kill like this one," Tom Difloure told Hopper.

As bad as the smell is and was, residents believed it could have been worse.

"The one thing that's good is that it hasn't been nearly as hot as it has been in the past couple of days," Difloure said.

Officials told Hopper more crews would be back to clean up the remainder of the fish Monday morning.