Sometimes the bottom waters in Mobile Bay can become deprived of the oxygen levels needed to sustain life. Then, every so often, an up-welling event will occur, which is the upward movement of the oxygen-poor bottom waters. As this happens, the animals seek the shoreline waters that are not impacted by the up-welling.
In addition to up-welling, the City of Fairhope names other conditions that must be met for jubilees to occur:. Also, a rising tide is necessary; a change to a falling tide will stop the jubilee. It takes a combination of all these conditions to produce the phenomenon.
Another cool video jubilee pic. All of these conditions are only satisfied in two locations across the world: Mobile Bay and Tokyo. Some years can feature a couple to even several jubilees, but knowing where exactly they will happen and how large they will be is virtually impossible.
Not every jubilee is the same, but the potential to catch a substantial amount of seafood like flounder, crabs and shrimp in a short period of time without doing much work provides plenty of motivation to be on the constant look-out! Skip to content. Watch Live. Latest Video. In the northern part of Mobile Bay, the salty sea water meets the fresh water from rivers. The salt water is heavier than the fresh water, resulting in salinity stratification, or layers of water with different levels of salt.
Sometimes, pockets of lower salinity water are trapped in place by a layer of heavier salt water. A jubilee occurs when this salinity stratification is disrupted and the pockets of water rush to the surface. Children play in the water at Mobile Bay in Fairhope, Alabama. Source: Photo by Carol M. Setting the Stage for a Jubilee No one can accurately predict when a jubilee will occur, but researchers have been able to learn when the conditions are favorable for one to occur.
Most commonly, jubilees occur in the summer months and happen just before sunrise. The weather in Mobile Bay the day before a jubilee is usually cloudy and overcast, with a light breeze blowing from the east.
Researchers know that jubilees only occur when all of the conditions are just right. A Mobile Bay jubilee. Source: en. In this way, the bottom water becomes very low in oxygen-poor water remains in the deep pocket offshore. Due to the lack of oxygen, these jubilee-affected fish and shellfish cannot carry out normal muscular activities, such as swimming.
They move slowly and seem reluctant to swim even to escape capture. However, few fish or crustaceans die during jubilees, except for those caught by jubilee enthusiasts. No one knows when or at what area on the beach the next jubilee will occur.
Additional information can be found at www. Please enable JavaScript in your browser for a better user experience. But it was the crabs Gardner would never forget. You could see them pile up, like they were trying to climb that wall. I thought it was the Judgment.
He is 66 years old now and has seen many jubilees. He has been the herald himself, tipping off newcomers, sharing the secrets and the lore. As with so many people here, it has become part of him. But you know how it is when you're young and want to chase women," he recalls. There was one lady whose mother, when she learned he lived here, made him promise to call her whenever the jubilee came. And a man can't watch the water from a rail yard, of course.
I even worked at the paper mill," Gardner says. But one or two mornings a year, he is a great fisherman with a bucket in his hand. They were waiting, watching for the early signs. People who have lived here a long time say you could smell the flounder frying and crabs boiling for a mile or so. But it was never certain, never guaranteed. You could stare into the bay all night, all the conditions could be right with perfect timing, but then the wind would change or it would fail to materialize for no apparent reason at all.
It was the chance in it that made it fun and has made that wonderment endure. It happens in summer because that is when the bay is the most stagnant. The decomposing plants washed down from swamps and marshes feed microorganisms in the bay, which explode in population and deplete oxygen levels. The oxygen deprivation creates a kind of stupor in the fish—a languor. They seem to wait to be taken. The jubilee is not an algal bloom, not like a red tide. There is no poison in it.
It has been happening for as long as anyone can remember. Civil War soldiers who were scanning the bay for gunboats watched it by torchlight, amazed. The Mobile Daily Register told of the phenomenon in , though it did not yet have a name. Once, before there were phones and car horns, the old salts would see the bounty approaching and ring a ship's bell.
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