Saving Seafood

Birds dying along California beaches as marine heat wave intensifies

May 14, 2026 — The ocean off California’s coast is heating up again, with marine heat wave conditions stretching across much of the eastern Pacific. In some areas, sea surface temperatures are running 4 to 8 degrees above average.

At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography pier in La Jolla, ocean temperatures have reached record highs on more than 30 days through April, with roughly one in five days this year setting a record for that date.

Scientists say the warming is already reshaping conditions along the California coast, where shifts in ocean temperature ripple quickly through the food web — from plankton to fish to the birds and marine mammals that depend on them.

Read the full article at VC Star

Some seas may soon be trapped in near-permanent heatwaves, scientists warn

May 13, 2026 — Seas recover. That’s the working assumption behind most marine conservation planning – heatwaves arrive, fish flee or die, then the water cools and the count resets.

A new study of 19 enclosed seas found that resets after heatwaves may stop happening. Some are on track to spend more than 330 days a year locked in heatwave conditions. Not a temporary extreme. A new permanent state.

Impact of heatwaves on Earth’s seas

The findings come from a team led by Matthias Gröger, a physical oceanographer at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) in Germany. His group ran climate model projections for 19 enclosed seas around the world.

These are stretches of saltwater hemmed in by land – the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and 15 others. Small and shallow compared to open ocean basins, with little water exchange beyond their narrow gates.

That geometry is the problem. Heat that would dissipate across the Pacific instead piles up in a confined space. Nowhere to go, no way to dump it.

Read the full article at Earth.com

Wildlife faces die-off risk as marine heat wave lingers over California

May 13, 2026 — The ocean off California’s coast is heating up again — and this time, the impacts are showing up on shore.

The marine heat wave has developed across much of the West Coast, stretching from Washington to California. In some areas, ocean temperatures have climbed 4 to 8 degrees above average. At the Scripps Pier in San Diego, ocean temperatures have logged record-high readings on more than 30 days through April, with about one-fifth of the year so far reaching record levels for that location.

Scientists have long warned of this pattern: when ocean temperatures spike, the effects move quickly through the food web, from plankton to fish to the animals that depend on them.

Read the full article at USA TODAY

An intense marine heat wave has California in its crosshairs, with impacts set for land and sea

April 22, 2026 — Something unusual and with far-reaching consequences is lurking in the sea off the California coast, stretching all the way down the Baja Peninsula and more than 500 miles to the southwest.

In this broad region, a large, long-lasting and record-setting marine heat wave has set in and is forecast to persist and intensify, altering the weather conditions on the West Coast and adversely affecting the marine food chain.

This heat wave, which is the oceanic equivalent of a heat wave on land, could have broad ramifications for sea life, as warm water species like hammerhead sharks and bluefin tuna migrate into areas where they are normally not seen, and cold-water species move deeper and further north.

The marine heat wave may have widespread impacts on the weather in the West, making off-the-chart heatwaves like March’s more likely and intense, supercharging rainfall and even allowing tropical systems to come northward into California.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography are monitoring ocean temperatures along the California coast, where their records stretch back more than a century. They have been recording one hot ocean record after another, especially during the past few weeks.

Since January 1 and through the end of last week, there were 36 days when sea surface temperatures at Scripps Pier in La Jolla, California set records for the hottest water temperature ever recorded on that date. This is significant, since daily data at that location goes all the way back to 1916.

Read the full article at CNN

VMI data used to study marine heatwaves may also monitor ecosystem health

January 15, 2026 — Researchers studying ecosystem dynamics in Pacific albacore and bluefin tuna documented by movement of fishing fleets during heat waves say the data can also be used to understand ecosystem health.

“Fishermen are increasingly recognized as top predators and have many of the qualities of effective ecosystem sentinel, ” said Heather Welch, an associate project scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, who led the study. These fleets serve as apex predators, effectively locating their prey.

The study summary discusses the ecological impact of Northeast Pacific marine heatwaves between 2010 and 2024 primarily off Oregon and Washington, mainly within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, but also on the high seas. The study examined one million satellite-based locations of 600 U.S. fishing vessels to determine whether such predator geolocation data could help assess the ecological impact of Northeast Pacific marine heatwaves during that period.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Study tracks fishing boats to see how heat waves affect fish distribution

January 14, 2026 — Marine heat waves have become longer and more frequent along the U.S. West Coast, as elsewhere in the world. But heating doesn’t always lead fish to change their location. A new study suggests a better way to tell if such ecological shifts are happening: Use fishing vessel tracking data.

The study, published Dec. 22, 2025, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that tracking data could provide early detection of extreme northward and inshore shifts in albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) and Pacific bluefin tuna (T. orientalis) distribution in response to heat waves. The data also showed when such shifts weren’t happening, despite high sea surface temperatures. Related data also showed when there was low albacore availability for fishing.

The study indicates that tracking data can in some cases be used as an early-warning signal for ecological change in the ocean, the authors suggest.

“We have so much data on fishing vessel activity,” study lead author Heather Welch, a marine spatial ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. “These data are traditionally used for surveillance, and it is exciting that they may also be useful for understanding ecosystem health.”

Read the full article at Mongabay