3 Million Fish Dead in Salton Sea

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Local and state officials are removing millions of dead fish from the Salton Sea. Its one of the largest fish kills in years and could spell trouble for local birds.
This week's die off of 3 million tilapia is the largest since 1999. 7 years ago 10 million fish covered the shore line, attracting thousands of pelicans and that lead to many of their deaths. Experts are saying that won't happen again.
"The reason we're trying to remove the dead fish from the shore line is because we don't want a repeat of 1999," says Rick Daniels of the Salton Sea Authority
This is what it looked like back then, thousands of pelicans dying because of eating bad fish, it was a sight authorities say they can't forget.
"It was a very disturbing process. It was a major epidemic for the birds, one that we'll always remember," said Kathy Dice.
And while she still remembers seeing birds literally dropping dead because of avian botulism, there's some good news. It's not bird season, which means these fish won't be bait for thousands of birds.
"This is actually a good time of the year because we're in between migrations of birds. Right now all of the birds are happy up north and they won't be coming down south until later this fall."
In the meantime, Salton Sea authorities don't want to take any chances. The tilapia will be taken to a power plant where they'll be burned.
"We don't want to take them and put them on a farm field somewhere so that they can be picked up by inland birds. We want to make sure the fish carcasses are destroyed."
Salton Sea authorities blame both of the major fish kills on the rising algae growth that reduced the oxygen supply for the fish. They hope to finish the clean up by the end of Saturday.