Intense Mediterranean sea thermal wave causes fears for sea life

Warm water on the sea sea may seem pleasant for your festive immersion, but the recent ocean heat in the Mediterranean was so intense that scientists are afraid of potentially devastating consequences for maritime life.

The sea surface temperature regularly passed 30C from the Majorki coast and in other places in late June and early July, in places at six -sings above.

This is probably warmer than your local pool at the holiday center.

It was the most extreme maritime thermal wave of Western honey, if it was recorded during the year, which affect the large territories of the sea during the weeks.

It seems heat cools down, but some species are simply struggling to handle such prolonged and intense heat, with potential effects on fish.

To give you some idea of these temperatures, most pools in the holiday center are heated up to 28C. Competitive pools suffering from 25-28 ° C, says World Aquatics.

Children’s pools are slightly warmer, recommended in 29-31c or 30-32c for babies, the Swimming Teachers Association reports.

Such a painful temperature may seem attractive, but they can pose hidden threats. Harmful bacteria and algae can often be easier to spread in warm seawater, which is not treated with chemicals for cleaning, as in a local pool.

The sea temperature is 30 ° C and higher is not unprecedented in honey in late summer.

But they are very unusual for June, according to the European Climate Copernicus, Mercator Ocean International and measurements in Spanish ports.

“This year is different that the temperature by 30 ° C came much earlier, and it means that we can expect the summer to be more intense and longer,” said Martha Markas, an associate professor at the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain.

“I grew up here, so we are used to thermal waves, but it has become more common and intense.”

“We are all very, very surprised by the size of this thermal wave,” added Aid Alver-Askate, Oceanograph at the University of Liege in Belgium.

“This is a question with a great concern, but this is what we can expect that it will happen in the future.”

Sea thermal waves are becoming more intense and longer as humanity continues to produce into our atmosphere of planets that burn coal, oil and gas.

In fact, the number of days of extreme surface heat worldwide three times in 80 years, according to data Studies published earlier this year.

“Global warming is the chief driver of the sea thermal waves … It is, in fact, transferring heat from the atmosphere to the ocean. It’s very simple,” said D -Rark.

The Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable because it resembles a bath, largely surrounded by continents, not an open ocean.

It means As it happened in June.

For this reason, MED is a “hot climate change,” said Karina von Shuukman of Mercator Ocean International, a non -profit research organization.

The heat reached the maximum when June turned into July, after which the stronger winds allowed deeper, more cool water mixed with a warm surface from above and lowering the temperature.

But the temperature remains above the average, and for maritime life there may be consequences that we do not yet know.

Most of life has a temperature threshold behind which it cannot survive, although it varies greatly between species and people.

But sea creatures can also suffer from long -term heat exposure, which, in fact, drains its energy through the summer to the extent that they can no longer cope.

“I remember how four years ago diving in September in late summer we found skeletons, many, many populations,” said Emma Sebrian, ecologist of the Bluna Center for advanced research in Spain.

Seaworks and sea grass act a little as the forests of the Mediterranean, where hundreds of species live, as well as fixing carbon dioxide, which warms the planet.

“Some of them are well adapted to the typical Mediterranean warm temperatures, but in fact they can not withstand the conditions of the sea thermal wave that are becoming more extreme and widespread,” said D -Rbbian.

Heat can also lead to what environmentalists call “subliteration effects”, where species are essentially moving into survival mode and are not restored.

“When we start seeing environmental consequences, there will almost be an impact on human societies (including) fisheries losses,” Dan Slol, a senior scientist at the Plimuth, warned Dan Smol.

“We will have to wait and see, but since the temperature is so high in early summer, it’s really anxious.”

The MED “Kanarka in a coal mine to change climates and marine ecosystems will soon be inferior,” he added.

Excessive ocean heat can also replenish extraordinary weather.

Warm seas mean additional evaporation, adding moisture in an atmosphere that can nourish extreme precipitation.

If other conditions are right, it may lead to a devastating flood as it happened in Libya in 2023 and Valencia in 2024.

And warm waters can reduce the cooling effect, which usually receives coastal populations from the sea breeze.

This can do everything very inconvenient if there is another thermal wave in the summer, D -Markas warned.

“I’m sure it will be awful.”