“At infrequent intervals in Mobile Bay, crabs, shrimp and several species of fish crowd to the shallow water where they may be easily taken by anyone on the beach,” marine biologist Harold Loesch wrote in 1960 in the journal Ecology, the first in-depth study of jubilees.The phenomenon begins when a large amount of organic material on the sea floor decomposes, robbing oxygen along the bottom of the sea. That, combined with a layering of warm saltwater and freshwater from rivers pouring into the Bay, pushes the bottom-dwelling flounder, crabs, eels and others to the surface.An easterly wind and incoming tide then sends the seafood to the shore.”It’s all those things coming together that leads to jubilees,” says Bill Walton, an assistant professor at Auburn University’s Marine Extension & Research Center.The jubilees can stretch about 15 miles on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, from Daphne to Mullet Point. Other times, they are highly localized to a few hundred yards of shore. Last year, the state put a limit of 10 12-inch flounder per day per person.

via Oil threatens Alabama’s ‘jolly good time’ – CNN.com.