LA JOLLA, Calif. — July 22, 2014 — Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography say it’s the largest such school that’s been seen off the coast of California in 30 years.
It was a massive school of anchovies – “multimillions” of them. Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography say it’s the largest such school that’s been seen off the coast of California in 30 years.
David Checkley, a professor of oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, studies anchovies and went swimming with the school.
“It was fish, fish, fish! There were fish in front of me, below me, to the sides, and behind me,” Checkley told Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson. “And they were beautiful.”
Schools of fish generally swim aligned in one direction. At the edge of the school, the fish create what looks like a hard boundary or, as the professor explains, a beautiful “cliff.”
Beauty aside, questions remain about the sudden appearance of the mass of anchovies.