Menhaden: Most Important Fish in the Bay

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We begin tonight with

an environmental mystery.

...debris along the beach

as far as the eye can see.

A large fish kill has struck

along the shoreline of the

Sebastian Inlet State Park.

Biologists tell us there

were up to a million...

She captured reams of dead fish

rolling onshore

and piling up...

Fishery staff are

baffled at what caused

these hundreds of dead fish...

Up to 5,000 blackbirds

fell within

a one-mile area...

Roughly two million...

Dead fish on the shores

of Rio de Janeiro...

Two million fish

here along Chesapeake Bay...

Thousands of birds started

falling from the sky...

...investigation

is ongoing...

They got me up 4:00

in the morning,

told me we had birds

falling out of the sky.

Scientists don't

know what killed them.

To your left...

look over to your left.

Okay, you can see

that's where the footage

about where you can,

uh, address...

- what that was about, okay?

- Okay, sounds good.

Okay, why don't we start off?

If you could just

fill us in

with basic details...

Okay.

Uh, my name is Donna Thompson.

I was a Communications major

at American University

covering the July 4th

festivities

in Claridge, Maryland,

on July 4th, 2009.

No cam... hey.

This is the first time

I am speaking publicly

about the disaster

that happened.

I was there.

Let's follow it.

You okay, Donna?

Donna?

- Yeah.

- Okay?

- Are we gonna be all right?

- Yeah, I'm sorry.

I thought this was gonna be

a little easier to talk about.

Okay, tell me when

you're ready and, um,

you can continue.

- Okay.

- I know it's hard. Go ahead.

Um...

my name is Donna Thompson.

For three years,

I and a few others

have been trying to speak out

about what happened

in Claridge, Maryland,

on July 4th, 2009.

But sometimes words

have no impact.

But now, with the help

of a website

called GovLeaks.org,

all of the digital information

that was recorded that day

has been obtained.

All of the digital information

that was confiscated.

Now, I don't know if anyone

is gonna be watching this.

I don't know if anything

is gonna happen to me

as a result of me

putting this out there,

but I do know that

I can't move on with my life

until this story is told.

You know, it's just, um...

it's hard to explain

what this town used to be like.

Well, it's 6:
00

in the morning

with "Mike in the Morning"

on this beautiful day,

this Day of Independence.

Good morning, Chesapeake,

and good morning, America.

Listen, I'm your marathon man.

What does that mean?

Hopefully you're gonna be

with me day and night

as I am with you

and we can celebrate.

I can't think

of a better way to celebrate

than a little music

from the heartland.

I used to

come here every summer

with my folks.

It's hard to explain what

this town used to be like.

I mean, it was fun.

It was where I had

my first crab dinner,

my first summer kiss.

So, uh, that's the mayor

right there.

Mayor John Stockman.

He actually used to run

a vacuum cleaner shop,

and then one day he just

up and got everyone

to vote for him for mayor.

Right there, that's Martin

and Helen Wycoff.

They were both involved in a lot

of community service programs.

Um, their whole family

actually died that day.

Three, two, one.

Good morning, Maryland.

- Oh, wait. Sorry.

- It's okay.

Honestly,

why didn't anyone tell me

my pants were too tight?

I'm sorry. It's just that every

time I look at this footage,

it's...

it's a little difficult,

and I have this tendency

to overcompensate a little bit.

- So...

- So you use humor, uh,

to hide those emotions.

- I understand.

- Right.

I mean, maybe

you should've gotten

a voice actor

or something to do this.

I don't know.

Okay, okay.

I gotta stop this.

I've been getting

too many phone calls,

too many complaints.

For those of you who do care,

it is Aaron Copland.

That's a piece

from "Our Town."

What do you say we kick

the energy up a little bit, huh?

I was just a summer intern.

I was just so excited

I was gonna be

actually interviewing people.

I think it's every girl's dream

to be Miss Crustacean.

I hope it's the beginning

of something much, much bigger.

I want to thank my parents

for their support

and my sister Taylor

for always being there for me.

Good morning, Maryland.

This is Donna Thompson,

and I'm in Claridge, Maryland.

Claridge is the host

of our annual

Eastern Chesapeake

July 4th party.

And I will be here all day

to cover the events.

It is my great pleasure

to announce

the beginning

of the 57th Annual

Claridge Crab Eating

Spectacular.

Am I in the frame?

So, this is good old Claridge.

It was founded in 1903,

supposedly by a fisherman

who ran around here

and liked it so much that

he started a crab restaurant.

- What's your name?

- Tyler.

And have you been preparing

for a while for this?

Not very.

All of it is, or was,

a whole population of 6,200.

There's a pretty big

chicken industry,

a bunch of restaurants,

and a whole lot of money

is made from summer tourism

on the water here.

Good job! Who's next?

Who's next?

- Me! Me! Me!

- I wanna get dunked.

Who's been playin'

around with you?

A real cool cat

with eyes of blue...

Oh, God. This

is my first interview ever

with Mayor Stockman.

I think I made him do this interview

like four different times.

I think I even told him

his hair dried fast

because he's bald.

Yep, it does dry fast, yeah.

So, I think we can show

just about everybody

that comes on down

a really good time.

Yeah. Cool.

Of course, at the time,

I had no idea

how culpable he was

for what was about to happen.

The first signs

that something was very wrong

happened six weeks

before July 4th.

It was on the news,

but I don't think anybody

really put two and two together

and knew what was going on.

The bodies of

two scientists were found

in the Chesapeake Bay

last night after having been

reported missing

for more than 36 hours.

The cause of death

was listed as unknown,

although medical examiners found

numerous wounds on the body

that might be consistent

with shark bites.

The two scientists

were oceanographers

working to measure

pollution levels in the bay.

These were two oceanographers.

One from the Cousteau Institute

and another from

the University of Maryland.

They were keeping a video diary

of their research

and sending it to the Chesapeake

Environmental Council.

Red algae here and here

does indicate bacterial growth.

Now Natural Resources,

they think it's feeding off

the nutrients in the water

from the chicken runoff.

- That's a strange attack.

- Yes, it is.

You don't hear about shark

attacks in the bay, normally.

Well, I think bull

sharks can be aggressive.

It seems like I remember, what,

- a couple of attacks last year, maybe?

- Here and there.

- Yeah.

- It is brackish throughout the Chesapeake Bay

and bull sharks have been known

to come up

in the bay occasionally.

I gotta tell ya.

It makes me a little nervous.

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