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Dead starfish on a Canadian beach
Photo: Christopher Harley / University of British Columbia
Christopher Harley is a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. There he deals with the impact of climate change on coastal waters. When the weather forecast recently announced a heat wave for the Pacific Northwest of the USA and Canada, Harley stated that he began to wonder: What would the announced extreme temperatures do to the creatures that live in areas of the shore that are exposed at low tide?
A few days later he got his answer - and it was frightening, as the researcher now reports in the New York Times. The first thing he noticed was the smell, the smell of decay. He saw countless dead marine animals, especially mussels and starfish. "The more I walked and the more I saw, the more sobering things got," Harley said. "It just went on and on and on."
Mussels, an ecologically important species, were particularly affected. The shells of the organisms partially opened as if they had been cooked. Harley is now working on estimates of how many mussels have died from the heat. For him, however, there is no doubt that there are many millions. Other living things such as barnacles, hermit crabs and other crustaceans, various worms, such as tiny sea cucumbers, are also massively affected. The researcher now wants to investigate their fate in detailed studies. His preliminary conclusion: "It feels like in one of those post-apocalyptic films."
Harley also reported that the clams on the shady north sides of rocks had better weathered the heat.
The fauna of the intertidal zone is generally robust.
But if the heat phases follow one another too quickly, the species do not have enough recovery time.
Fish transported by tanker
In the western United States, experts also worry about the fate of freshwater fish.
These animals are also noticeably troubled by the extreme heat because it also causes higher water temperatures in inland rivers and lakes.
Rare salmon were therefore specifically caught on the Snake River in the state of Idaho and brought to rearing stations by tanker.
There, the conditions for their survival should be better designed - until those responsible have decided how the animals will go on.
In California there are also problems with too high water temperatures, for example for the salmon, which because of the Shasta Dam on the Sacramnto River can no longer move into the Pacific and instead lay their eggs there.
Biologists fear that 90 percent of the eggs and young animals could die because it is too warm.
Most recently, it was said that temperatures in the areas affected by the heat should drop slightly.
However, it should remain very hot in the coming days.
Most recently there had been massive problems with forest fires in the region, including not far from Yosemite National Park in California.
A quick study by the World Weather Attribution Group last week suggested that the heat wave in America would be "nearly impossible" without climate change.
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