Los Angeles Times - 29.08.2019

B2 THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019 LATIMES.COM

Record high Pacific
Ocean temperatures record-
ed off the West Coast in re-
cent years have receded to
near normal, according to a
report on the California Cur-
rent.
That cool shift marks the
end of “the blob,” the mass of
warm water that dominated
the West Coast, and of the El
Niño event that followed. It’s
unclear, however, what that
means for fish and marine
mammals, scientists with
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra-
tion stated in the 2019
ecosystem status report for
the California Current
Ecosystem.
“The big thing is that a lot
of the physical conditions of
the ocean here off of our
coast are beginning to re-
turn to normal,” said Elliott
Hazen, a research ecologist
with NOAA’s Southwest
Fisheries Science Center in
La Jolla. “But it is not clear
yet whether the ecosystem is
as well.”
Starting around late 2013,
waters off the West Coast
rose 2 to 4 degrees above
normal, as a high-pressure
system in the Pacific shut
down westerly winds that
channel cool waters down
the West Coast. That gave
rise to the warm, stagnant
waters of “the blob,” an oce-
anic anomaly that contin-
ued until about 2016. Ocean
warming continued in 2015-
16 with an El Niño event, in
which warm equatorial wa-
ter heats up the ocean off
California.
Throughout that period,
populations of sardines and
other small fish crashed,
leading to record numbers of
young sea lion strandings. It
also brought tropical fish, in-
cluding yellowfin and bluefin
tuna, into California waters.
That wave of warm water
culminated in August 2018,
when the sea surface tem-

perature at Scripps Pier in

La Jolla hit a record 78.6 de-

grees, the highest in the

pier’s 102-year history.

This year, the California

Current has returned to

more typical temperatures,

though it’s still running

about one-half to 1 degree

higher than average, Hazen

said. That has brought a

partial restoration of the re-

gion’s marine life. Sardine

fisheries have been closed

for five years because of low

stocks, while anchovy are re-

covering, said Dale Sweet-

nam, deputy director of the

Fisheries Resources Divi-

sion of NOAA.

“The thing we’re seeing

right now, is that the sardine

have not yet started to come

back, but the anchovies have

been doing very well,” said

Toby Garfield, director of

the Environmental Re-

search Division at NOAA’s

Southwest Fisheries Scien-

ce Center. “In different

areas, the pockets of an-

chovies are coming back.”

As anchovy populations

pop back up in coastal wa-

ters, humpback whales and

other marine mammals

have followed suit, making

rare appearances near the

coast.

“We have been seeing

humpback whales feeding

offshore, foraging on an-

chovies” off the Central

Coast, Hazen said.

The whales are even ven-

turing near San Diego

beaches, to the delight of ob-

servers. Although gray

whales make regular migra-

tions off Southern Califor-

nia, humpbacks are more

unusual visitors.

“In fact, we had a juvenile

humpback playing right off

the lab yesterday, in La Jol-

la,” Sweetnam said last

week. “He was breaching

and playing with all the

boats and kayakers. We

haven’t seen humpbacks

playing in La Jolla for a long

time.

The close encounters

with humpbacks have had

their downside too, as more

of the whales have become

entrapped in fishing gear.

Whale entanglements in 2015

through 2018 were more than

double the annual average

for the years 2000 to 2013, the

report found.

Sea lion pups are thriving

anew, the report found. The

pups experienced mass

strandings during “unusual

mortality events” between

2013 and 2015, when sea lion

mothers struggled to find

enough food to nurse their

young.

During that time, sick

and malnourished pups

washed ashore in Southern

California, taxing the limits

of marine mammal rescue

organizations. By 2018, how-

ever, they appeared to be

bouncing back, scientists

said.

“Pup count, weight and

growth are all increasing,”

Hazen said before adding a

word of caution. “The high

pupping is good, but we still

have to see if they grow” to

adulthood.

Seabirds were also stag-

ing a comeback. Although

there were major “wrecks,”

or die-offs, of auklets and

murres in 2014 through 2016,

there was no widespread

mortality in 2017 and 2018,

the report stated.

Scientists are still puz-

zling out what these changes

mean in the long term, and

whether phenomena such as

humpback whale patterns

are statistical blips or on-

going trends.

“Even though the warm

water has largely receded by

2016, we’re still seeing hump-

back whales closer to shore,”

Hazen said. “Is this just an

aftershock of the blob, or is

this what we’re going to be

seeing for the next two, five,

10 years? We just don’t know

yet.”

Brennan writes for the San

Diego Union-Tribune.

‘The blob’ off West Coast cools down

The waning of a mass

of warm ocean water

is helping anchovies

and humpback whales.

By Deborah
Sullivan Brennan

AS ANCHOVYpopulations pop back up in the coastal waters, humpback whales and other marine mammals

have followed suit, making rare appearances near the coast. Above, a humpback off Santa Barbara in 2001.

Mike EliasonAssociated Press

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