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It was around 12.30pm on Sunday when a large shoal of fish hit the rocks of a breakwater on Mezquitilla beach, on the border between Algarrobo and Vélez-Málaga on the eastern strip of the Costa del Sol. The tremendous noise alerted dozens of bathers, who literally felt 'attacked' by the fish, anchovies and small sardines, as several witnesses explained to SUR.
The strange phenomenon occurs when a shoal of fish flee from a predator attack, taking refuge near the shore. They do so with such speed that hundreds of them swim out of the water and end up hitting the rocks and washing up on the shore. Around a dozen bathers helped the fish back into the water, catching them with their hands.
This phenomenon, although unusual, is completely natural and is occurring more and more frequently, although in summer it is much more striking as the beaches are crowded, as was the case this Sunday on this stretch of the eastern coast. In fact, in mid-November something very similar happened on the rocks just below the Balcón de Europa in Nerja, as reported by SUR.
Marine biologists Juan Jesús Martín and Juan Antonio López explained to this newspaper that it was a huge shoal of 'lachas', a type of pelagic fish that are very abundant in the Mediterranean and which have a lower commercial value than sardines. "It's the first time I've ever seen anything like this in my life. It is a very surprising, strange and unprecedented phenomenon I would say on the coast of Malaga," said Martín, who has more than three decades of experience in research and dissemination of information on the Alboran Sea, and who was in charge of the Aula del Mar de Málaga until it was disbanded just a year ago. "It is likely that they were fleeing from a predator, such as mackerel, dolphins or tuna, and that is why they took refuge on the rocks," Martín added.
López, who is part of the recently created Aula del Mar Mediterráneo foundation (FAMM) , ratified this initial hypothesis: "It seems that they are fleeing from something and taking refuge. We are going to investigate it. They were probably fleeing from groups of blue whiting, tuna or bonito," said López, who considered that this unusual phenomenon is related to climate change, due to the increase in the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea in recent years.
"We are detecting large shoals of juvenile shrimps, sea bass, sardines and anchovies, which may be related to the increase in water temperatures, which causes an explosion of phytoplankton and, in turn, produces an exaggerated and unusual reproduction of other species: it is a food chain," López added. The specialist gave the comparative example of wild boars, bears or wolves on land. "Predators move closer to the coast because they have less food on the high seas due to overfishing."
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