July 26, 2019 — The effects of the marine heatwave off the California coast from 2014 to 2016, better known as The Blob, that led to a decrease in Chinook salmon and virtually shut down the Dungeness crab industry are finally starting to wear off.
The heatwave led to major shifts in the marine ecosystem, with species of fish migrating to different regions where the temperature was more favorable. It caused declines in certain species and increases in others. A type of algae that produces the neurotoxin domoic acid also outcompeted other forms of algae, leading to huge blooms that poisoned a variety of sea life, such as Dungeness crab.
“It wasn’t about (a lack of) abundance,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “It was about destabilized ecosystems.”
The ecosystem is still recovering from the marine heatwave, slowly cooling down, but conditions are improving enough to have led to a 12.3% increase in West Coast fishery revenues, primarily “driven by Pacific hake, Dungeness crab and market squid,” according to the 2019 California Current Ecosystem Status Report prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Jennifer Gilden, the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s staff officer for outreach, habitat and legislation, said the ocean conditions are improving, though the Chinook salmon population has yet to fully recover.
“This year won’t be great,” Gilden said, “but conditions will be improving over the next few years.”