Now SHARKS could get even angrier in warmer seas as the world’s oceans hit the hottest EVER recorded temperature of 20.96C after climate change warms the planet’s waters, scientists warn
Now SHARKS could get even angrier in warmer seas as the world’s oceans hit the hottest EVER recorded temperature of 20.96C after climate change warms the planet’s waters, scientists warn
Sharks could now get even angrier after the world’s oceans reach their highest recorded surface temperatures, scientists say.
Copernicus, the EU’s weather service, revealed yesterday that sea surface temperatures reached an average of 20.96°C – better than the previous highest recorded in 2016 of 20.95°C.
Warmer seas mean problems for fish and corals and can lead to a rise in sea levels. As the oceans warm, fish such as cod may have to move further north to reach the cooler seas they prefer.
And predators like sharks can get aggressive because they get confused in hotter conditions. Dr. Simon Boxall of the University of Southampton told the Telegraph: ‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if sharks get grumpy. Fish are quite wary about the temperature.’
A Copernicus spokesperson said yesterday: ‘The record has been broken. The oceans have been measured the warmest.’
Sharks could now get even angrier after the world’s oceans reach their highest recorded surface temperatures, scientists say
Average sea temperatures have risen steadily since records began in the late 1970s, the data shows. Here, daily global sea surface temperature (°C) is plotted as a time series for each year from January 1, 1979 to July 23, 2023. The years 2023 and 2016 are shown with thick lines shaded in bright red and dark red, respectively. Other years are shown in thin lines and shaded according to the decade, from blue (1970s) to brick red (2020s)
WMO says July will certainly be the warmest month “by a significant margin.” Shown are the 30 warmest months on record worldwide
Samantha Burgess, from the climate monitoring service, says March should be when the world’s oceans are warmest, not August. She told the BBC: ‘The fact that we’ve now seen the record makes me nervous about how much warmer the ocean could get between now and next March’.
The record temperatures are partly due to the El Nino weather phenomenon – the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean – with 2016 also being an El Nino year.
But global warming is likely to push temperatures up, she said. “The more we burn fossil fuels, the more excess heat is dissipated through the oceans, which means it will take longer to stabilize them and return them to where they were,” added Dr. Burgess to it.
Dr. Katie Longo, from the Marine Stewardship Council, said: ‘It could mean that fish such as cod are declining in numbers. Cod feeds on tiny shrimp-like creatures called copepods, and the changing temperature can cause the copepods to breed at the wrong time for the cod larvae to feed.’
Dr. Kathryn Lesneski, who tracks a marine heat wave in the Gulf of Mexico for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the BBC: ‘The water feels like a bath when you jump in.
Air surface temperatures are usually the main metric looked at when considering temperature increases, but ocean temperatures are also important indicators (file photo)
“Right now there is widespread coral bleaching on shallow reefs in Florida and many corals have already died.”
Scientists are investigating the reasons why the oceans are so hot, but say climate change is making the seas much warmer because they absorb most of the heating from greenhouse gas emissions.
The broken temperature record follows a series of marine heat waves this year, including in the UK, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Professor Rowan Sutton, from the University of Reading and the National Center for Atmospheric Science, said: ‘Ocean warming is worrying.
“The latest data on sea surface temperature from Copernicus suggests that we may not only be experiencing a record-breaking extreme event, but a record-breaking one.
‘And this is not just for a local temperature measurement, but for a global one, which will have far greater consequences.
While there are certainly short-term factors, the main long-term cause is undoubtedly the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels.
“This is yet another alarm bell screaming for the most urgent measures to limit future warming and adapt to the serious changes unfolding before our very eyes.”