Unrelated. They wandered into a harbor and used up the oxygen.
Another story. Although. . . maybe they could sense the tsunami coming. . . nah.
Nobody has any definitive answers as to why the sardines swam into the marina, but they suspect it may have had something to do with a toxic algae bloom 12 miles south. They’ve tested positive for domoic acid, which is found in such blooms, and which could have been why they swam into the marina, but they still don’t know for sure.
What was around a couple of days before their little corpses started rising to the surface, were dozens and dozens of dolphins, which I had the pleasure of watching play, surf (I’m not kidding) and eat, so we knew there had to be massive amounts of little fishies around, too. I later learned that there were also blue whales in the bay. My theory is that the sardines were “herded” into the marina, trying to escape being supper.
A couple of days later, we had horrendous winds. The kind you almost can’t even walk against. And apparently the kind little fish can’t swim against in rough waters, either. When they tried to return to the open waters, they were pushed up against the harbor wall and couldn’t get out. With so many millions in such a contained area, they used up all the oxygen in the water and died, where they sank to the ocean floor. 
As they started to decompose, they started rising to the surface. It was a pretty incredible sight. Some of the guys on the cleanup crew I talked to said they were as much as 3 to 4 feet thick on the surface.
By the time we got down there, they had done a fairly good job getting a good portion of what had risen, taken out. But, there were still millions more on the bottom, and yesterday they started surfacing again. I would hate to see the condition of the marina now. I know it’s not huge, but with a 4 foot tsunami, it ripped huge boats from their moorings and tore apart chunks of the docks. I’m guessing there are now millions of sardines strewn around in places that will be much harder to clean up than the surface of the water.
And the toxins they contain could be harmful to all the zillions of birds that were feasting on them, so we’re likely to have a mass bird die-off, too. I just hope the dolphins aren’t sickened from it. Or the seals. They chowed down, too.
But in the scheme of things, I’ll take that over what they’re dealing with in Japan any day.
I also noticed in jjimm’s clip about the Indonesian tsunami in Aceh, partway through you get video from someone facing an incoming torrent, including a very close view of a vehicle caught in the water headed right toward the cameraperson.
Cross-posting from my English-teacher thread:
**
Wow. This was certainly unexpected (then again, since when does one expect a natural disaster, to say the least the worst recorded quake in Japan’s history?)
Thank you all so much for your concern. It’s really touching. I am fine. I just got power back a few minutes ago.
Things here in Aomori City weren’t so bad at all. It was a 4ish on the scale, although the Japanese scale is a little different. Things rattled kinda strong, but nothing actually fell. Only one quake was enough to feel very off balance. There have been about 15 or more detectable aftershocks. While things shook, there seems to be no structural damage and only () three deaths. All the foreigners in the city are taking care of each other and the JET people in charge have done a good job of making sure everyone is safe.
But yeah, by comparison, Sendai, where the earthquake hit, was an 8.8 I believe, so about 10,000 times as strong. They also got hit by a tsunami, soooo, many houses got swallowed by the earth and are now floating down the river… It’s so bad there.
Thank you all again so much for your concern. Never feel bad about detective work. I keep myself pretty searchable online anyway. My parents and friends have been notified.
Let me tell you, sleeping during an aftershock is an experience I’ll never forget. Almost therapeutically massaging if your lizard brain wasn’t screaming “OMG WE GONNA DIE” at a volume of 11. Again…damn.
Again, I’m fine. I’m really sorry I didn’t post any sooner 
My phone was out of battery and couldn’t call out… No power until just a little bit ago. I was fortunately able to call my parents using a backup phone with international roaming. I got a friend whose phone somehow still worked intermittently to post to Facebook. I think everyone’s been notified. Thank you all again.
Good to hear you are OK.
Given all the preparation Japan has gone through for such an event it’s hard to imagine a nuclear power plant meltdown. Am I looking at Google Earth Correctly? The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is 29 kilometers from the epicenter?
Autolycus just let us know in the other thread that lynkster is in the prefecture just south of Sendai. I sent her an email asking if she’s okay. She probably has no power even if she is, but I just wanted to let her know people over here are thinking about her.
Walls collapsing at the plant. Doesn’t sound good at all.
Oh geez… Two of those plants are in Fukushima, where lynkster resides. She’s probably fine, but man… nail-biting =/
A government official is announcing now on life news that there was an explosion at the plant, but they don’t know if it involved the nuclear material. They just announced an evacuation for 10 km around it and No. 2 reactor as well.
There still are tsumami warnings all over the east coast.
They are asking for people to reduce electricity usage.
He said that there are rumors being spread via emails which is untrue that the rescue efforts are not sufficient. They are untrue.
He asked the people don’t take pictures/videos from dangerous places. Didn’t mention if such people’s genes would be better off
Mostly trying to reduce people’s concerns. Humm. Not working for this viewer.
Will provide more information later.
the press asked if 10 km was sufficient, and he said it was but they may reconsider later.
Video of the explosion.
Not good.
This is just becoming ever more surreal. Earthquake, tsunami, now possible nuclear meltdown?
The evacuation order is up to 20 km from Reactor 1. Shit.
The talking heads on TV are all saying that this accident wasn’t “expected” or anticipated. Good god. Everyone was looking at the Big One coming in Tokyo.
They need to get a better disaster prevention committee together, because there are 120 million Japanese who can tell you we are sitting on major faults and there could be a major earthquake anywhere.
Confirmed over 1,000 dead and climbing.
Well, you guys were. We tend to focus on the Big One coming in Osaka 
A couple of years ago I participated in a joint seminar between Osaka University and the National Defense Academy of Japan which centered on the JSDF’s disaster relief capabilities and the Osaka prefectural government’s disaster response plans. I gave a presentation discussing the need for special capabilities in response to nuclear power plant containment failures following an earthquake, so reading the news now is bringing all that back.
Sadly the conclusion of most in the seminar was that while there were various comprehensive response plans on paper, actual implementation still had a ways to go. My professor mentioned being told by a Tokyo official that the official casualty estimates for the next major Tokai earthquake were at least an order of magnitude too small but that everyone was in denial.
Another aftershock. For fuck’s sake my nerves are shot. Thank goodness for my jug of shouchuu. I can’t get too blitzed though…just in case…
My goodness, that looks, very bad. Could be a huge disaster all on its own.
I was under the impression that the entire country, really, is an earthquake zone.
Glad you got back online, Autolycus. Aftershocks are – no pun intended – deeply unsettling, on that primal level. Been there. Hang on.
Yeah, he was technically disobeying orders, since he was told to take cover and didn’t. IIRC his film was actually confiscated (although it was used in a ton of tornado docs in the '90s).
Anyway, if it’s possible, the guy who filmed this video might be a bit more stu-…uhh, I mean, cavalier. First he gets struck by lightning inside his house (probably from a root of a tree that was struck), but he keeps filming until the tornado is basically across the street and doesn’t stop until he gets hit by debris from his own house. :eek:
Anyway, regarding the earthquake, here is aninteresting map that I found that shows the approximate wave heights propagated by the tsunami across the Pacific. It’s eerie to think that some of the little speckled areas on the map are actually islands.
What are the best relief agencies to donate to? I realize the Red Cross of course, but what are some alternatives?