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Rare Seafood Phenomenon

By Jene' Young Meteorologist

Published: Thu, August 09, 2007 - 6:28 pm

Short URL: http://wkrg.com/a/4293/

Jene' Young

The weather is hot, Mobile Bay is calm, some may call Jubilee weather.
"We are in a terrible drought, we don't have any rain, the Bay is stagnant, we have no wind. Everything is perfect to create a high stress situation for the bottom waters in the bay." Dr. George Crozier, the Director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab says that is the right time for Jubilee.
But on the Western Shore of Mobile Bay? News 5 received reports of a couple of Jubilees this summer on the Western Shore. Ricky Johnson saw the Western Shore jubilee. "There were crabs crawling out over the water and a few flounder still, but they said they were getting over with by then. So I went down the bank and there were thousands and thousands of crab coming up."
Jubilees only happen on a few shorelines around the world. One of the places is Mobile Bay, but usually on the Eastern Shore. This summer, that may not be the case. Johnson says he saw the Jubilee near Mobile Yacht Club. He wasn’t the only one who saw it. Other fishers got lucky too.
Connie Phillips heard about the Jubilee. "It was early one morning, a mullet fisher came in. He was really excited, the boat was loaded down full of flounder, about 900 pounds of flounder. Didn't know it was here in Mobile, I thought he came from the Eastern Shore.“
Most have never seen a jubilee on the Western side of the Bay, that’s because Crozier says they are rare. But not everyone is a believer. Some people we talked to think it might have been a fish kill. Crozier explains the difference between a fish kill and jubilee: "A jubilee, live fish on a beach. Fish kill, dead fish in the water or on the beach is in fact a consequence of not having enough oxygen in the Bay waters. The hotter the water, the less oxygen the water will hold."
As hot temperatures continue, oxygen could be in high demand at night. But you’ve got to get to the shore early, or know someone who will.
News 5 spoke to David Cohen with the Week’s Bay Fishing Club. He and a group of friends go up and down the Eastern Shores looking for hot spots for jubilees. He says in an average summer, there are about nine jubilees. So far, there have only been two that he has knows about.