A new "Pacific Blob," has mysteriously appeared off the East Coast of New Zealand and is a reflection of another more famous, "Pacific Blob," which lies off the coast of Alaska and is thought to be the reason of lack of fish resulting in the deaths of millions of seabirds from starvation in the vast area since 2015.
The new "blob," could be devastating for wildlife off the East Coast of New Zealand as the vast area becomes too warm for fish to live there, which in turn affects seabirds and other members of the fragile ecosystem.
The new mysterious "Southern Blob," is an enormous area, according to NZHerald. In fact, the blob is a very big patch of water measuring tens of thousands of square kilometres where the water is 4C above the average temperature of 10C to 15C on a similar latitude to Wellington in the Pacific Ocean. The central hot spot is about the size of the North Island(114,000sq km) or the South Island(150,000sq km). The wider area is larger than both islands combined. "Sea temperatures don't actually vary too much and a degree, plus or minus, is quite a big deal and this area is probably four degrees or more than that above average and that's pretty huge. "Right in the centre of the "blob", it's likely to be more than six degrees warmer than average. "It's extremely warm water in terms of differences from average, it's got to be one of the warmest spots on the planet at the moment," said Renwick. At 20C, the blob in the southern Pacific is getting up there with temperatures in the Tropics that start in the 20s and reach 30C, (86 deg F) and there lies the problem for the fragile ecosystem, it will simply collapse
The NZHerald reported earlier this month that scientists weren't ruling out another marine heatwave which will further melt glaciers over summer. Throughout November, some sea temperatures grew up to 10 degrees in a matter of weeks while land temperature records were also breaking. "A stormier start to December has meant coastal waters have had a lot more mixing and sea temperatures actually dropped slightly for a while - but are on the rise again for many parts of the country," said Niwa meteorologist Nava Fedaeff, adding that there might be another slight dip in the week ahead.
The Pacific Blob has returned to the coast of Alaska and is causing more havoc for marine life. Click on image to enlarge. 2019 will go down as Alaska’s hottest summer on record, the latest benchmark in a long-term warming trend with ominous repercussions ranging from rapidly vanishing summer sea ice and melting glaciers to raging wildfires and deadly death and chaos for marine life. Could a similar disaster unfold in the Southern Pacific?
Fish all gone! Gulf of Alaska fishery to close for the first time ever: No more cod: Salmon all but gone: Millions of small sea birds died since 2015
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