A 'blob' of unusually warm sea water in the Pacific Ocean was responsible for the deaths of about 1 million seabirds in 2015 and 2016, according to a study.
"The magnitude and scale of this failure has no precedent."A"blob" of unusually warm sea water in the Pacific Ocean was responsible for the deaths of about 1 million seabirds in 2015 and 2016, a study released Wednesday said.
"The magnitude and scale of this failure has no precedent," said study lead author John Piatt, a research biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center, in a statement."It was astonishing and alarming, and a red-flag warning about the tremendous impact sustained ocean warming can have on the marine ecosystem."
At one point, the blob of ocean water was 2 to 7 degrees above average and about 1,000 miles across and 300 feet deep. It covered some 4.5 million square miles of ocean. "We believe that the smoking gun for common murres – beyond the marine heat wave itself – was an ecosystem squeeze: fewer forage fish and smaller prey in general, at the same time that competition from big fish predators like walleye, pollock and Pacific cod greatly increased," said study co-author Julia Parrish, a University of Washington professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.
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