Thousands of fish carcasses have been floating up to the edges of the San Francisco Bay, and the scummy top of Oakland’s Lake Merritt – stewing under the sun and wafting a putrid stench into nearby neighborhoods.
The dead bat rays, striped bass, sturgeon, anchovies and clams, are probably mass victims of an algal bloom that scientists are racing to understand. In the meantime citizen scientists, local photographers, joggers and naturalists have been capturing dramatic photos of the die-off.
