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Using three decades of temperature records from eight buoys and stations spread throughout and near the Chesapeake Bay, Mazzini and Pianca found that between 19, the bay experienced an average of two marine heat waves per year, with each lasting about 11 days. It’s really clear when you look at the trends they are pretty alarming,” said Piero Mazzini, a physical oceanographer who with Cassia Pianca co-authored the study published earlier this month in Frontiers in Marine Science.
HEAT WAVE KILLED MARINE WILDLIFE MASSE FULL
“And it should have our full attention and our dedicated action as well.A study by two researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has found that the frequency of heat waves in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay is increasing, a trend connected to rising atmospheric temperatures that could have “devastating impacts to the bay ecosystem, ” the scientists warn. “There’s a long, slow emergency that’s been going on for a long time,” Thaysen said. The recent heat wave and marine life die-offs are scary and capture the public’s eye, Thaysen said.īut the climate catastrophe’s impacts on shellfish and other marine creatures have been happening for some time and are projected to worsen, he added. “To some extent, I rely on the intertidal zone to feed my family,” Thaysen said, saying he collects oysters and clams.įOCI has monitored the shores of Mansons Landing marine park for many years.Ī previous heat wave already wiped out the lagoon’s mussel population some years ago, and it has never fully returned, as the bivalve is particularly sensitive to heat events. There are not only repercussions for the marine ecosystem, but also for food security in small coastal communities, he said.
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The group is starting to follow up on reports and hit the beaches to survey the tidal zones concerned, he said. Some reports of smells and dead oysters are surfacing in areas such as Squirrel Cove, Mansons Landing, and Gorge Harbour, said Max Thaysen, interim executive director of the Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI).Īs the environmental steward on the island, FOCI monitors eelgrass beds, forage fish spawning and conducts dive surveys in the tidal and sub-tidal zones around the island, Thaysen said. Photo by Rochelle BakerĮnvironmental groups in smaller coastal communities are also hearing reports of the telltale stench of decay at various beaches. Michelle Douglas and Max Thaysen of the conservation group Friends of Cortes Island do a preliminary survey of shellfish at Mansons Landing lagoon. The more eyes collecting information about sea stars on the coast, the better, said Gehman, adding citizen scientists help researchers by recording data on sightings using the iNaturalist app, which can be downloaded to cellphones. “So this is the kind of trigger that makes me concerned.” “We know from lab experiments that different aspects of wasting disease are associated with anomalously high water temperatures,” she said. Though there were the immediate deaths of many stars with the heat wave, Gehman is more worried about the long-term implications. The magnificent sunflower sea star is now listed as critically endangered, with 90 per cent of its population having disappeared from the waters of the Pacific coast.Ĭitizen scientists from Quadra Island and other areas describe sea stars that dried to a crisp after getting caught out in the tidal zone during the hot spell, said Gehman, a researcher with the University of British Columbia and the Hakai Institute. Linked to a virus, the disease begins with white lesions on the sea stars, and quickly causes their arms to fall off before reducing them to piles of mush. Photo by Keith Holmesīefore the heat wave, sea stars along the West Coast were already under siege from a wasting disease aggravated by warm water temperatures, said biologist Alyssa Gehman.
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“Who knows how long it will take to grow back.” Biologist Alyssa Gehman says she'll be watching for longer-term impacts to at-risk sea stars from a wasting disease following the heat wave.