California’s coastal ecosystem is in the midst of a massive “disruption” because of climate change, says the San Francisco Chronicle. For example, warmer waters have stalled the growth of kelp forests, causing sea urchins, which depend on kelp as their main food source, to mature abnormally. Their spiky shells are nearly hollow, and North Coast divers have brought in only one-tenth of their normally lucrative catch.
Urchins aren’t the only species hurting. “Baby salmon are dying by the millions in drought-warmed rivers while en route to the ocean. Young oysters are being deformed or killed by ocean acidification. The Pacific sardine population has crashed, and both sardines and squid are migrating to unusual places. And Dungeness crab was devastated last year by an unprecedented toxic algal bloom that delayed the opening of its season for four months,” says the Chronicle.
To be sure, some species, like sardines, experience cyclical periods of population collapse, and weather patterns go through their own cycles, like El Niño and La Niña. But most scientists agree that the changes observed in California are more than the usual ups and downs.
“Almost any scientist you talk to would say, ‘Yes, the climate is changing, and we’re seeing a lot of variability,’” says Toby Garfield, director of the Environmental Research Division at San Diego’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Southwest Fisheries Science Lab.
As the fish disappear, so does the fishing. “The [species] collapses are taking a financial toll on the state’s seafood industry. A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released Wednesday showed the California fishing harvest decreased in value by $109 million between 2014 and 2015, or by 43 percent,” says the Chronicle.
Apart from climate change, the plight of certain species, like the winter-spawning Chinook Salmon, is exacerbated by dams, which shunt water to Central Valley farms. With little water in streams and rivers, what is left quickly heats up too high, killing 95 percent of winter-run baby and juvenile salmon in 2014 and 2015. “By some estimates, 80 percent of California’s native freshwater fish species could be gone by 2100,” says the Chronicle.