If you’ve been home all day (as you should be) in the neighborhoods around the Long Beach harbor, you’ve probably been hearing ship horns going off in the distance all day too. That’s because it’s really foggy in the harbor right now and there’s way more ships out there than normal.
“We’ve been in low visibility since I got here at 6 a.m. today,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Black.
Even though it may be sunny in the rest of the city, the fog in the harbor hasn’t yet burned off and there’s low visibility at about 300 yards in the port, Black said.
“It’s just really foggy and they sound their horns to avoid crashing into each other,” he said.
There are far more ships in the harbor than usual right now partly because of the 27 oil tankers anchored just off the coast. The cost of oil plummeted this week, causing oil companies to have to store their stock in the tankers.