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Marine life is constantly threatened by global warming, as water temperature seems to be permanently on the rise. However, some parts of the world seem to be recording much higher temperatures than the ones scientists had predicted.
One of these places is Puget Sound, along the U.S. coastline of Washington State. It seems that the drought and an unusually warm mass of warm water might pose a great threat to the marine life in the area.
“I wasn’t expecting the conditions to be this extreme. I thought it would be dry and warm, but I wasn’t expecting this,” said climate scientist Nick Bond from the University of Washington.
This is extremely alarming news for scientists and it has prompted oceanographers from the U.S. Department of Ecology to take a closer look at the whole situation. They soon came to the conclusion that warm blob is causing this massive heat in this part of the Pacific Ocean.
This blob has been wandering about the waters between Alaska and Mexico and has had a very negative impact especially on marine life.
According to various experts, water temperature has increased by up to 4 degrees in certain areas. Before that, authorities had spoken about a very hot and dry summer, with extreme temperatures, bu these were mainly attributed to global warming.
Nevertheless, the bad news does not stop here. It seems that a new El Niño phase will hit this part of the ocean and it is not expected to be mild. The two phenomena combined could have devastating effects on the entire ecosystem of Washington, which might result in abnormal weather changes in the area. El Niño is currently developing in the equatorial area of the East Pacific and the temperatures recorded there are unusually high.
The blob that warms up the surface of the ocean is also affecting deep water temperatures, which can have very negative consequences on sea creatures. Marine life is already being affected by the large amounts of toxic substances present in the water. It was reported that many species of fish are dying from intoxication. Moreover, shellfish are on decrease mode as well, which limits the natural filtering of the water.
Experts warn that the rise in temperatures will be felt during the winter, when there will be less snow than people usually expect.
Image Source: pugetsoundstartshere
