Millions of anchovies die on Spain beach

Yahoo/AP ^ | 9-29-06 | Harold Heckle

[STARWISE]

Millions of anchovies — a protected species in Europe — have died in northern Spain after an unexplained mass beaching, officials said Friday.

The fish, all juveniles, were found stranded along large stretches of Colunga beach, 35 miles east of the port city of Gijon, a normally pristine seaside landscape in the verdant province of Asturias.

"More than three tons have been found so far, and our main — untested — hypothesis at the moment is that they tried to flee from predators and accidentally beached," said Luis Laria, chief coordinator of a marine protection unit working with the government.

Laria said a European Union moratorium on fishing anchovies along the northern Atlantic coast of Spain and the western coast of France has been in place for two months. Less rigorous fishing restrictions had been used for the previous two years.

These anchovies are considered susceptible to extinction and are therefore closely monitored by scientists, according to Spain's Environment Ministry

[STARWISE]

It's Friday, Woodward's book is filling the airwaves, Rep. Foley resigned ... time to ponder epicurious news, but I can't bring myself to post the picture of those poor darlings. I wonder if the reporter gets ribbed for his name.

[RichInOC]

"Hey! Who wants pizza?"

[Revolting cat!]

You sound like you want to hold the anchovies!

[madison10]

The world will be a better place...

[tfecw]

"The fish, all juveniles, were found stranded along large stretches of Colunga beach, 35 miles east of the port city of Gijon"

They should have a law that prevents fish from beaching themselves. Will someone please think of the children!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"No Anchovies, Please."

[Egon]

Wow. The potential humorous posts from this article almost write themselves.

[Constitution Day]

Quick, somebody go get a sh*tload of pizza dough, tomato sauce and pepperoni!

[HEY4QDEMS]

Waiting for the reports that suggest Global Warming caused this or perhaps policies of the Bush administration.

[evad]

Environmentalist's practices overpopulated the species...
so they committed hairy canary???

[Altair333]

That begs the question- of all the fish in the world, who decided that anchovies belonged on a pizza? Shrimp seems like a much more natural choice.

[swmobuffalo]

Crackers and mustard sauce anyone?

Anchovies stink when you cook them. I used to work in a pizza place and we would open the back door when we had to make a pizza with anchovies, shrimp too.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Sounds like its time to cut bait or fish!

[Red Badger]

The fish, all juveniles......

Fish Fad?............

[Cementjungle]

If this happens to pepperonis then I'll start to be concerned.

[Revolting cat!]

[MPJackal]

"after an unexplained mass beaching"

Anchovies and mass beaching just strikes me as funny.

[SmithL]

Hail Caesar! Salad

[A Texan]

Ohhhhhhhhh the humanity!!!

[Lekker 1]

I'll bet it smelled worse then the East German gymnastics team locker room.