Dead fish = earthquake predictor?

An Azeri scientist has linked the recent incident of California's mass fish death to the earthquake in Japan.

"Animals, they feel everything. They run away from earthquakes however they can," Gurban Jalal Etirmishli, the general director of the Azerbijan Science Academy's Republican Center for Seismology, told Life News, a Russian tabloid.

More than a million sardines washed up on California's Redondo Beach last week. Scientists say they suffered from a lack of oxygen, but some reports have said they were found to have high toxin levels.

"During the first underground movements on March 8, toxic gases and even radiation could have oozed out, becoming a reason for the death of the fish," Etirmishli said. "If, in the near future, a similar thing happens, it can be a sign of a coming earthquake."

Etirmishli offered absolutely no proof for his theory, but noted that more than 100 whales washed up on New Zealand's shore days ahead of its deadly earthquake. His comments to the tabloid came after an Azeri scientist, Ikram Kerimov, published an open letter in local press putting forth the theory.

"Certain ranges of acoustic waves in the marine environment, caused by movements ahead of a big earthquake, are disastrous for marine animals, from which they die or throw themselves onshore," Kerimov wrote.

** Updated to correct order of scientist's name