Marine heatwave found to have engulfed area of ocean five times the size of Australia (www.theguardian.com)
from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 18:55
https://sh.itjust.works/post/39532763

Almost 40 million sq kilometres of ocean around south-east Asia and the Pacific – an area five times the size of Australia – was engulfed in a marine heatwave in 2024, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report has revealed.

WMO scientists said the record heat – on land and in the ocean – was mostly driven by the climate crisis and coincided with a string of extreme weather events, from deadly landslides in the Philippines to floods in Australia and rapid glacier loss in Indonesia.

Satellite measurements showed sea levels were rising almost 4mm per year – “significantly higher” than the global average of 3.5mm, the report said.

#world

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DrSoap@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 21:07 collapse

This has got to be killing the fish.

med@sh.itjust.works on 05 Jun 23:30 next collapse
Ledericas@lemm.ee on 05 Jun 23:52 next collapse

jellyfish population explodes under these circumstances. they are pretty much tolerant to things like these. i remember them reporting worldwide expansion of cniderians due to rising temps and or pollutions.

ms_lane@lemmy.world on 06 Jun 06:27 collapse

It’s not quite hot enough to start killing off marine life just yet, but yet it is-

We’ve had massive die-offs on the coast of South Australia, not directly from the heat, but the heat combined with a lack of ocean currents (and possibly some iron seeding from some visiting warships) allowed a stonker of an Algal bloom to form off our coast, in the end it was bigger than Kangaroo Island.

That started killing off sea life and only dispersed last week after a big storm.

Even before we hit the thresholds for marine life dying due to heat directly, they’re going to die from toxic water :(