Sardines

Several days ago we were taking our daily walk along the shore.  This day we noticed there was a lot of activity that was not normally there.   There was an unusually large number of birds down the beach by the rocks that were acting extremely agitated.  As we approached we could see the water was alive with fish.  There were millions of Sardines.  These Sardines are about three to four inches long and move in schools that are so thick they completely fill the water.

There are basically three kinds of fish eating birds that are here constantly.  There are the Pelicans:

The Terns:

And, the Frigates:

There were large numbers of each of these types of birds all trying to eat the Sardines.

The Terns and the Pelicans were especially active.

The Pelicans are by far the most voracious.

Of course with this many Sardines in the water, in addition to the birds chasing them, there are bigger fish chasing them as well.  This means there are fishermen trying to catch the bigger fish.  (In this picture the white water in front of the fisherman is not a wave, it is sardines splashing.)

The fishermen do not use poles; they have their line wrapped on a small spool or on a board, hold the line in their hand close to the bait, and just throw it.

There were fishermen everywhere.

They were catching a lot of fish on this day—mostly red snapper.

The Sardines are also used for bait when the fishermen go out in their boats so there were some fishermen just trying to catch the sardines.  They were using nets.

Of course, it is always good to have a partner when you are fishing to bring you fresh bait and maybe a Cerveza,

The Sardines are still here.  At first the fishermen loved it.  Now they are saying that the bigger fish are not biting because they are so full of Sardines.  
If this were to happen in the United States it would somehow cause the price of gas to go up.