Heat Waves as Deadly as Forest Fires Sweep Through World’s Oceans

It is well known that the oceans are warming, but a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on March 4 is the first to examine heat waves that last 5 days or more in the world’s ocean.  The scientist involved compare those heat waves to “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest.”

Ocean heat waves are happening more frequently.  In the past 30 years, the number of heat wave days have increased by more than 50% compared to the period 1935 to 1954 and the incidence of heat wave days has tripled in the past several years.  Not only are ocean heat waves more frequent, they also tend to be more severe and last longer.

Like Wild Fires In The Ocean
“You have heatwave induced wildfires that take out huge areas of forest, but this is happening underwater as well,” says Dan Smale of the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, UK, who led the research.  “You see the kelp and sea grasses dying in front of you.  Within weeks or months they are just gone along hundreds of kilometers of coastline.”

Read original at Heat Waves as Deadly as Forest Fires Sweep Through World’s Oceans