Jubilee is the name used locally for a natural phenomenon that occurs sporadically on the shores of Mobile Bay

Mobile Bay

Mobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...

, a large body of water on Alabama's

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 Gulf Coast

Gulf Coast of the United States

The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South, South Coast, or 3rd Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States...

. During a jubilee many species of crab

Crab

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

 and shrimp

Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

, as well as flounder

Flounder

The flounder is an ocean-dwelling flatfish species that is found in coastal lagoons and estuaries of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.-Taxonomy:There are a number of geographical and taxonomical species to which flounder belong.*Western Atlantic...

, eel

Eel

Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...

s, and other demersal fish will leave deeper waters

Demersal zone

The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean comprising the water column that is near to the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of the larger profundal zone....

 and swarm

Swarm

Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by animals of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving en masse or migrating in some direction. As a term, swarming is applied particularly to insects, but can also be applied to...

—in large numbers and very high density—in a specific, shallower coastal area

Pelagic zone

Any water in a sea or lake that is not close to the bottom or near to the shore can be said to be in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek πέλαγος or pélagos, which means "open sea". The pelagic zone can be thought of in terms of an imaginary cylinder or water column that goes...

 of the bay. A jubilee is a celebrated event in Mobile Bay, and it attracts large crowds, many drawn by the promise of abundant and easy-to-catch

Gathering seafood by hand

Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters....

 seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...

.

Although similar events have been reported in other bodies of water, Mobile Bay is the only place where the regular appearance of this phenomenon has been documented.

Descriptions

The Mobile Bay jubilee typically takes place at least annually, and sometimes several times per year; years without a jubilee have been recorded, but they are exceedingly rare. Many accounts of the jubilee exist, the oldest dating back to the 1860s.

The size, scope, and duration of the jubilee can vary greatly. Sometimes a 15 miles (24.1 km) stretch of coast representing most of the eastern shore can be affected, and at other times the extent can be limited to as little as 500 feet (152.4 m) of coastline. Most jubilees happen in the pre-dawn hours.

The large volume of crustacean and fish that a jubilee can produce is hard to overstate; author Archie Carr comments that "[a]t a good jubilee you can quickly fill a washtub with shrimp. You can gig

Gigging

Gigging is the practice of hunting fish or small game with a gig or similar multi-pronged spear. Commonly harvested wildlife include freshwater suckers, saltwater flounder, and small game, such as frogs. A gig can refer to any long pole which has been tipped with a multi-pronged spear. The gig pole...

 a hundred flounders and fill the back of your pickup truck

Pickup truck

A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...

 a foot deep in crabs."

In addition to the sheer mass of the animals present, harvesting them is made considerably easier by the effect that the oxygen deprivation has on the animals. Their behavior has been described as "depressed and moribund

Moribund

Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state of near-death.Moribund may also refer to:* "Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel which became better known for its rewritten English-language version, "Seasons in the Sun"...

", or "unnatural"; crabs are observed "climbing tree stumps to escape the water" and flounder "slither up the banks."

Causes

It was not until 1960 that the phenomenon was explored in-depth by marine biologist Harold Loesch

Harold Loesch

Harold Carl Otto Loesch was a marine biologist and oceanographer who is credited with being the first to examine the Mobile Bay jubilee in an...

 for the journal Ecology

Ecology (journal)

Ecology is a scientific journal publishing research and synthesis papers in the field of ecology. It was founded in 1920, and is published by the Ecological Society of America.- External links :**...

. Locals and laymen had based some earlier attempts to explain the animals' strange behaviors on the interaction of sea

Seawater

Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% . This means that every kilogram of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts . The average density of seawater at the ocean surface is 1.025 g/ml...

- and fresh water

Fresh Water

Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...

 during the incoming tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

.
After researching the oral histories

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

 and journalistic records of past jubilees, measuring physical and meteorologic

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

 conditions, and taking biological and chemical measurements, Loesch concluded that accumulated organic material on the bay floor could, under a certain set of conditions, result in a rapid depletion of oxygen (hypoxia

Hypoxia (environmental)

Hypoxia, or oxygen depletion, is a phenomenon that occurs in aquatic environments as dissolved oxygen becomes reduced in concentration to a point where it becomes detrimental to aquatic organisms living in the system...

) in parts of the bay, driving fish to the surface seeking oxygenated

Oxygenation (environmental)

Environmental oxygenation can be important to the sustainability of a particular ecosystem. Insufficient oxygen may occur in bodies of water such as ponds and rivers, tending to suppress the presence of aerobic organisms such as fish...

 water.

Another, more comprehensive study by Edwin B. May in 1973, as well as smaller studies by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

OverviewAlabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is the state agency responsible for the conservation and management of Alabama's natural resources including state parks, state lands, wildlife and aquatic resources. ADCNR also issues hunting and fishing licenses for the state...

 and the NOAA confirmed many of Loesch's hypotheses. If wind direction, surface temperature, salinity, and tidal variation interact in ways that allow or promote a jubilee, the situation can develop rather quickly. May sums up the mechanism of action thus:

History

While the occurrence of jubilees in Mobile Bay predates European settlement in the region, it is unknown exactly when or how these events came to be known by this name. The first recorded printed use of the term "jubilee"

Jubilee (Biblical)

The Jubilee year is the year at the end of seven cycles of Sabbatical years , and according to Biblical regulations had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the territory of the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah; there is some debate whether it was the 49th year The Jubilee...

 in this context was in the Mobile Daily Register (now the Mobile Press-Register

Press-Register

The Press-Register is a daily newspaper serving the southwest Alabama counties of Mobile and Baldwin. The newspaper is a descendant of one founded in 1813, making the Press-Register Alabama's oldest newspaper...

) on July 29, 1912:

This was not, however, the first time the newspaper had covered the phenomenon; in his research, oceanographer Edwin B. May found several dozen mentions of similar events, the earliest dated back to July 17, 1867 and alludes to the fact that the phenomenon was known to have happened earlier:

In an oral account from 1960 a local fishing captain named Frank Phillips stated that he had observed jubilee events for the previous 60 years, indicating that "[N]either [the] frequency nor intensity... had changed". He also stated that his father had also seen jubilee events "...during all his life."

Favorable conditions, locations, and frequency

Loesch studied jubilee events spanning 11 years, from 1946–1956, hoping to find patterns in the jubilee occurrence. From this data he was able to conclude several things.

Month

Month	| Jubilees
June	8
July	3
Aug	21
Sept	5

Over the 11-year period studied, the 37 jubilees all occurred between the months of June and September, more frequently in August than all other months combined.

Location

Jubilees are most common on the upper eastern shore of the bay, from Point Clear to slightly north of Daphne, but they also occur with less frequency south of Point Clear to Mullet Point, and on the Bay's western shore at Deer River and Dog River

Dog River (Alabama)

The Dog River is a river in Mobile County, Alabama. The Dog River watershed drains more than . The river is about long and is influenced by tides. It originates at within the city of Mobile. It discharges into Mobile Bay, a tidal estuary on the northern Gulf of Mexico, at near Hollinger's Island...

Point.

Wind, rain and tide

There is disagreement as to what, if any, effect local rainfall can have on the jubilee. Almost all jubilees occur with an incoming tide, and an easterly wind.

Folk consensus

Loesch lists five observations that he reported as having a strong concurrence among witnesses of several jubilees:

1. Jubilees occur only in the summer.
2. They usually occur in early morning hours, i.e., before sunrise.
3. The wind on the day previous and during the jubilee is from some easterly direction. If wind direction changes, the jubilee will cease.
4. There is a rising tide during a jubilee; a change to falling will stop the jubilee.
5. There are 2 water masses meeting, with the saltier water invading during a jubilee.

Jubilee in local culture

The length of coast that serves as the most popular jubilee grounds is densely populated. When a jubilee is spotted people living near the shore will often ring bells and call out to alert their neighbors so that everyone can rush down to the water with washtubs, gigs and nets, and gather a bountiful—and easily reaped—harvest of seafood. As jubilees only happen on warm summer nights, often in the early pre-dawn hours, the event takes on the aspect of a joyous community beach party, with lights shining into the Bay water.