Molasses Spill Kills Fish in Honolulu.

Hawaii molasses spill is polluting the harbor. At least its not oil. It’s edible. Or is it? Why is it killing all the fish? Simple lack of oxygen? Or is that much (sugar) molasses poisonous in some way? Only to fish??

Got an update on this today, they’re sampling the water. Nothing yet on what the results were.

Later update from Smithsonian online… .

Where oil stays at the top of the water, molasses sinks and sucks up all the oxygen in the water that fish need to breathe. According to the Hawaii Department of Health there’s basically nothing they can do to clean it up from the depth. Janice Okubo, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s sugar in the water. If you know a scientific way to remove it from water, let us know.”

So, I guess it is just killing the fish, sucking all the oxygen out of the water. Not dangerous to people, just plain old molasses. 🙂