No, this isn’t a huge oil slick off the coast of La Jolla Shores in San Diego as some might have guessed. Rather a massive Anchovy Shoal formed and they spend their time “munching on plankton and smaller fish and doubtless admiring its own very sexy silver stripe.” Apparently, A current “La Niña” pattern of the Pacific Ocean created cooler water and has created the ideal conditions for anchovy, which prefer cooler temperatures.
The massive blob shoal in La Jolla Shores has drawn tourists, surfers and even video recording helicopters taking in the awesome sight. The anchovy shoal is not the first as back in 2013 the Monterey Bay was so full of Anchovy it attracted a large array of sea lions, humpback whales, and even pelicans feasting on the shoal. Check out the video below from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. [Popular Science]
