{"id":801596,"date":"2026-05-16T23:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/801596\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T23:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:08:24","slug":"what-a-persistent-ocean-heatwave-means-for-sea-life-and-a-possible-el-nino-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/801596\/","title":{"rendered":"What a persistent ocean heatwave means for sea life and a possible El Ni\u00f1o year"},"content":{"rendered":"

California has had a spate of abnormally large marine heatwaves in the past 12 years. Typically, they\u2019ve started far offshore in the spring, reached our coast by the fall, then receded by late winter, according to<\/a> the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA.<\/p>\n

But the current heatwave has stuck around pretty much all year \u2014 since last May, particularly off the Central and Southern California coastline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only time you ever see that would be during an El Ni\u00f1o, but we’re not in El Ni\u00f1o yet,\u201d said Andrew Leising, \u200aan oceanographer with NOAA\u2019s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o is likely to hit our region in the coming months, though it remains to be seen how strong it could be. El Ni\u00f1o is a natural global climate pattern that occurs every three to seven years, when trade winds \u2014 the prevailing east-to-west winds that circle the Earth near the equator \u2014 weaken, and waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific warm up.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

The key point, said Leising, is that El Ni\u00f1o isn\u2019t here yet. So why is the ocean so warm?<\/p>\n

‘A new normal’\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely a sign of how human-caused climate change \u2014 driven by the pollution we\u2019ve pumped into our atmosphere \u2014 is making natural cycles more extreme, experts say. <\/p>\n

“Approximately 30% to 45% of the affected ocean area is experiencing conditions that are at least six times more likely due to human-caused warming,” according to Climate Central<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A NOAA expert said the evidence of climate change’s effects on ocean temperatures has been growing since 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aHow much that is, whether there’s feedback with the atmosphere, that’s what’s really difficult to quantify just because it’s never one thing acting on its own,” said Elliott Hazen, an NOAA ecologist.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The latest conditions of the ongoing marine heatwave off our coast. <\/p>\n

Leising called the regularity of these marine heatwaves \u201ca new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very possible that the long-term change in the atmosphere is what’s flipped the switch between fewer and now more heatwaves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

2014 was a major turning point. That\u2019s when a massive marine heatwave dubbed \u201cThe Blob\u201d started, persisting until mid-2016. It caused harmful algae blooms and mass dieoffs of marine life<\/a>. It also coincided with El Ni\u00f1o.<\/p>\n

So far this marine heatwave\u2019s effects aren\u2019t as widespread as The Blob\u2019s. But the current pattern is echoing what led to that devastating event.<\/p>\n

An uptick in dead and emaciated seabirds along our coast is one possible sign. Scientists are increasingly pointing to the deaths as related to the heatwave. Why? As birds\u2019 typical food sources move into deeper, cooler waters where birds can\u2019t reach, the birds starve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See a struggling marine animal or seabird? Here\u2019s what to do<\/p>\n

First, do not approach the animal \u2014 maintain a safe distance. <\/p>\n

To report sick, injured or abandoned seals or sea lions, call the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles hotline (800) 39-WHALE\u00a0(94253).<\/p>\n

In Malibu, call the California Wildlife Center at (310) 924-7256.<\/p>\n

To report birds, sea turtles or dead marine mammals, find the right contact here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The forecast<\/p>\n

The warm waters are unlikely to let up anytime soon with El Ni\u00f1o on the horizon.<\/p>\n

For us on land in Southern California, that could mean less June gloom, a hotter, humid summer and a dangerously wet winter.<\/p>\n

For animals underwater, such as stingrays and juvenile white sharks, those warmer temperatures can be something of a boon \u2014 experts are predicting more stingray stings<\/a> and shark sightings<\/a> this summer at our local beaches.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A round stingray, the most common type of stingray living along our shore and the most likely to sting you. <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Courtesy CSULB Shark Lab<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

But for other creatures, such as nesting birds or sea lions, as well as kelp forests<\/a> that support that life, such heating can be devastating. Just like humans, living in high temperatures for a prolonged period can be deadly for marine plants and animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might just roll from one thing into the next, and that’s really where some of the biggest impacts lie, is that cumulative stress on the animals,\u201d Leising said.<\/p>\n

Warmer waters also mean less upwelling \u2014 when deep, cold ocean water rises to the surface.<\/p>\n

That means \u201cless nutrients, and just less total productivity,\u201d Leising said. \u201cSo there’s just not as much stuff at the bottom of the food web to feed everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a lot unknown about these escalating marine heatwaves, but cuts to NOAA under the Trump administration could jeopardize ongoing research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of work is critical to understand how to respond,\u201d Hazen said, \u201cbecause the longer we take to respond, the more species end up dying, and the more economic consequences too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California has had a spate of abnormally large marine heatwaves in the past 12 years. Typically, they\u2019ve started…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":801597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[285,72908,97754,746,113018,936,159,326424,67,132,68,64036,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-801596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-dead-birds","10":"tag-el-nino","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-marine-heatwave","13":"tag-ocean","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-the-blob","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-warm","20":"tag-water"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116586775085479499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}