The surface of the water on Tomales Bay was calm and tranquil when Lisa Tarpley paddled out late last month for an afternoon of kayaking with two of her friends. Then, the frenzied splashing began.
The group had made their way down Lagunitas Creek and into the mouth of the 15-mile-long inlet when they saw at least 100 fish thrashing and leaping out of the water. The kayakers stopped paddling and froze, unsure of what to do. Were the fish chasing after them? Or were they trying to get away from something else? Tarpley, a paralegal from San Francisco, pulled out her phone and started filming while trying to dodge the flopping creatures, which appeared to be at least three feet long from nose to tail.
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“It was hard to capture the entire chaotic scene because we were completely surrounded,” Tarpley told SFGATE in an email. “One was big enough that it splashed beside me and soaked my left side. Honestly, I’m surprised one didn’t land in the kayak.”
The group eventually got away. “I paddled toward the left bank and it seemed like the whole school was turning and following me,” Tarpley said. When she and her friends returned their kayaks and showed the video to the owner of the rental shop, he was just as taken aback, and told them he would ask around and see if other locals had seen anything like it before.
Ken Oda, an environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, knows the area – and the fish that live there – quite well. He identified the species in the video as striped bass, which are common in the waterway, and can be found along the West Coast from Mexico to British Columbia, as well as many other parts of the country…