Typically, the surface of the ocean follows a daily temperature cycle: warming a bit when the sun is out and cooling again at night. “I know that area really well, and seven degrees is a huge jump,” Gentemann said. In September 2014, NOAA scientists noted that a buoy off the coast of Newport, Oregon, recorded a seven-degree Celsius (thirteen-degree Fahrenheit) rise in temperature over the course of only one hour. Now an oceanographer, Gentemann tracks ocean temperatures, and the blob had caught her and her colleagues’ attention. One of these scientists, researcher Chelle Gentemann, grew up on the Pacific Coast, where she and her family spent summers fishing for salmon. (Courtesy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries West Coast) Whence the warming Rescued pups were in a malnourished state by the time they arrived at rehabilitation centers. A marine heat wave lasting from 2013 to 2016 stranded sea lion pups along the California coast in record numbers. Why had this warm pool of ocean water spread so far and lingered for so long?Ī malnourished sea lion pup is stranded on shore in 2015. Scientists were left scratching their heads.
Hundreds of sea lions starved along California shorelines. Chinook salmon populations in Washington and Oregon plummeted. Dead fin whales and sea otters began washing up along the Alaskan coast.
Higher ocean temperatures also increased warm water algae species, which were less nutritious for marine life.īy the end of 2015, both blob and blooms had shut down much of the Pacific fishing industry and upended the marine food chain. However, the blob fueled longer-lasting and more pervasive blooms, which became toxic to marine life and humans. Although such blooms are common, they usually only last a couple of weeks before dissipating. By summer of 2014, the heated mass of water stretched from Alaska to Mexico and had been nicknamed “the blob.”Īs the blob spread, unusually warm waters triggered extended harmful algae blooms. The pool lingered in the sub-Arctic Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska through winter, and then quickly expanded south along the Pacific Coast. This marine heat was so persistent and unusual that it initially defied explanation. In 2013, a mysterious pool of warm water developed off of Alaska.
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