WATER TEMPERATURES IN the north Atlantic Ocean are up to 4 degrees higher than usual for this time of year, with scientists warning that the marine heatwave could harm sea life.
Marine heatwaves are prolonged periods of very high sea surface temperatures.
The US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have designated weather event as a Category 4 Extreme heatwave.
Daniela Schmidt, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Bristol, told The Guardian:
“Heat, like on land, stresses marine organisms.”
“In other parts of the world, we have seen several mass mortalities of marine plants and animals caused by ocean heatwave which have caused hundreds of millions of pounds of losses, in fisheries income, carbon storage, cultural values and habitat loss.”
“As long as we are not dramatically cutting emissions, these heatwaves will continue to destroy our ecosystems. But as this is happening below the surface of the ocean, it will go unnoticed.”
This continues the trend of a record hot North Atlantic as previous record high ocean temperature records continue to get shattered.
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) June 17, 2023
At a global level, no ocean basin is seeing such widespread and intense marine heatwaves as the North Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/df7llLvwMi
Last month, the UK’s Met Office recorded that sea temperatures around Britain in April and May reached an all-time high for those months.
A report released today has warned that Europe could suffer from more deadly heatwaves driven by climate change, noting that the world’s fastest-warming continent was 2.3 degrees Celsius hotter last year than in pre-industrial times.
The report from the World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that emperatures across the continent rose 1.5C in 30 years, from 1991 to 2021.
Dr Dan Smale from the UK’s Marine Biological Association has been working on marine heatwaves for more than a decade and stated that he was surprised by the temperatures recorded recently.
He said: “I always thought they would never be ecologically impactful in the cool waters around UK and Ireland but this is unprecedented and possibly devastating.”
“Current temperatures are way too high but not yet lethal for majority of species, although stressful for many … If it carries on through summer we could see mass mortality of kelp, seagrass, fish and oysters.”
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