New research suggests shifting climate patterns that influence the Pacific Ocean have caused waters off the West Coast to grow warmer and less productive.
These changes could affect a variety of marine species such as seabirds and salmon, NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region reported. The phenomenon may already be showing its face; there has been an exceptionally high mortality rate of sea lion pups in southern California as well as in seabirds on the Oregon and Washington coasts.
"We are seeing unprecedented changes in the environment," Toby Garfield, director of the Environmental Research Division at the SWFSC, told the Council.
The 2015 State of the California Current Report delivered to the Pacific Fishery Management Council showed evidence of record high sea surface temperatures and weaker upwelling of deep water, indicating a declining productivity in the California Current. The presence of tiny organisms called copepods, that act as the base of the food chain, has declined significantly.
"We're seeing some major environmental shifts taking place that could affect the ecosystem for years to come," said John Stein, director of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. "We need to understand and consider their implications across the ecosystem, which includes communities and people."
The researchers are particularly concerned about salmon, which will be influenced by a "double jeopardy" of low snowpack in the Northwest and streams shrunk by the California drought as well as a reduction in food availability.
"We are in some ways entering a situation we haven't seen before," said Cisco Werner, director of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. "That makes it all the more important to look at how these conditions affect the entire ecosystem because different components and different species may be affected differently."
