Climate change - Blob of hot water causes death of sea birds

20 Jan 2020

One million sea birds die in warm Pacific Ocean

Climate change – Blob of hot water causes death of sea birds

Climate change – Blob of hot water causes death of sea birdsWe do know that global warming and climate change are affecting our planet.

According to research, about a million sea birds died in the Pacific Ocean in less than a year because of warm ocean waters.
Climate Change? - What exactly happened:

Between the summer of 2015 and 2016, thousands of dead sea birds, especially the common murre washed ashore on North America’s west coast, from Alaska to California.

Researches have now understood the reason for this mass death - A huge area of warm waters in the northeast Pacific Ocean, also called the ‘blob’.
 	This blob began due to a marine heatwave in 2013. Water temperatures continued to increase till 2015/2016 because of a phenomenon called El Nino*.
 	The blob stretched for 1600 km with increased water temperatures by 3-6 degree Celsius.
 	Due to the water temperature rise, larger fish, such as the salmon needed more energy to survive and hence ate more small fish.
 	This led to the death of the murres due to malnutrition or starvation as they didn't get enough fish to eat.
 	Around 62000 dead murres were washed up on the shores. Since most dead sea animals do not come to the shore, scientists estimate more than a million sea birds died.
 	The warm waters also caused the growth of harmful algae that killed many fishes too.
 	Besides the murre, other creatures like sea lions, baleen whales and tufted puffins also died.

*El Nino – a climatic phenomenon in which the waters of the Pacific Ocean near the equator get hotter than usual. Researchers believe that due to global warming, its effects are more severe.
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We do know that global warming and climate change are affecting our planet. According to research, about a million sea birds died in the Pacific Ocean […]

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