A sobering warning on Earth Day: Scripps researchers say record-breaking ocean temperatures and toxin levels are harming local sea life.
The high temperatures might be left over from the warm-water "blob" off California in 2014.
Scripps Oceanography says rapid heating was caused by fair, hot weather
Weakened wind patterns likely spurred the wave of extreme ocean heat that swept the North Pacific last summer, according to new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The marine heat wave, named the "Blob 2.0" after 2013's "Blob"; likely damaged marine ecosystems and hurt coastal fisheries. Waters off the U.S. West Coast were a record-breaking 4.5 degrees F (2.5 degrees C) above normal, the authors found.
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