The only thing worse than hundreds of fish washing up on the beach is hundreds of fish washing ashore on several beaches around the world at the same time.
And that is what happened last week, raising concerns that Hosea’s end-of-days vision of a wildlife apocalypse might be kicking in.
MEXICO: DEAD CUTLASSFISH
Hundreds of dead fish washed up dead on Palmares Beach in the city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico twelve days ago. The breed of fish, the largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus), also known as cutlassfish, are elongated in shape with a thin pointed tail (they lack a fishtail in the usual form). The eyes are large, and the large mouth contains long pointed fang-like teeth. They grow to about 13 pounds and while most are only 2-3 feet long, some have been known to grow to over seven and a half feet in length.
At least 200 of the fish were found washed up onto the shore. Local fishermen indicated that it is not common to see this species near the beach, since they normally live in the deep ocean at around 130-1,500 feet.
Authorities are now analyzing the cause of their mysterious death.
HOKKAIDO: FROZEN SARDINES
A few hundred dead fish may not seem alarming but it was repeated just a few days later and on the other side of the world. TV Asahi, located in Tokyo, reported that one week ago, dead sardines began washing up on the beaches of Wakkanai City, Hokkaido. The die-off was attributed to the abnormally cold weather. Though the cold-snap was unfortunate for the sardines, it allowed the locals to collect the fish before they spoiled.
Authorities were less enthusiastic, expressing concern that an unknown disease may have been the cause of the fish’s death. Last year, Hokkaido was the scene of a “red tide”, a harmful algal bloom occurring along coastal regions that results from large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms. It is believed that the algae drifted down from Russia, causing wholesale deaths of salmon and sea urchins, resulting in damages totaling $67 million to the local fishing industry.
ITALY: HEAVY SNOW AND DEAD SEABREAM
In a similar occurrence, thousands of dead seabream appeared five days ago in the Richo Lagoon of Drepano Lake in north-western Greece after a heavy snowstorm blanketed the entire country.“They died from thermal shock,” said local Ichthyologist Konstantinos Perdikaris from the Department of Fisheries, who visited the lagoon on Tuesday.
The Seabream species are sensitive to low temperatures and cannot survive below four degrees celsius, said Perdikaris. Usual temperatures in the lagoon at this time of year are about seven to eight degrees celsius, he said.
The fish were at a shallow depth where the cold was quicker to penetrate the water. The fish belonged to a local state-owned fish farm, and due to their containment in an enclosure in the lagoon they could not swim out to the deeper depths of the lake or sea to survive, said Perdikaris.
An estimated 50 tons of fish died in the incident.
DEAD FISH BRINGING MESSIAH?
Massive die-offs of fish are prophesied to accompany the end-of-days.
For that, the earth is withered: Everything that dwells on it languishes— Beasts of the field and birds of the sky— Even the fish of the sea perish. Hosea 4:3 Rabbi Shaul Judelman, former director of the Ecology Beit Midrash, a religious study group focused on the environment as it is treated in classical Jewish sources, noted that ecological endeavors are clearly an element in the Final redemption.
“The sea used to be teeming with life,” Rabbi Judelman said. “It was a given in the Bible that the heaven and Earth would always exist. But when the prophets describe the end of life in the sea, it was the ultimate, an inconceivable level for people to imagine.”
“אחרית הימים (acharit hayamim; literally the end of days) can also be translated as the end of the oceans,” Rabbi Judelman pointed out.
“Nature is described as praising God and Man was set to guard over it. Our relationship with nature was initiated by Hashem (God) and how we relate to nature is an expression of how we relate to Hashem. Nature is God’s aspect of Judgment as related by God’s name of Elohim with which he created the world. In the end of days, when we are judged, we will be judged in this name, the name of nature. Some envision the end of days as armageddon and catastrophic. But according to Jewish tradition, there is another possibility that we can bring the Redemption in Achishena, through the sweetening of the judgment. Part of this can definitely be expressed through nature.”
“The environment is our divinely mandated responsibility. As such, harsh judgments can cause natural catastrophes. But in times of drought, we are told to pray but we are also told to engage in acts of charity. Nature is an extension of our relationship with God.”
