Boiling seawater in the heatwave... Ecological 'warning signs' from record-high sea temperatures

As heatwaves sweep across the globe, sea surface temperatures have been confirmed to have reached record highs.

AFP reported on the 4th (local time), citing data from the ‘5th generation international climate atmospheric reanalysis’ (ERA5) released by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) under the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), stating that “the global average sea surface temperature on the 30th of last month was recorded at 20.96 degrees Celsius.” This is 0.01 degrees higher than the previous record of 20.95 degrees set in March 2016.

Since April, the average sea temperature has been breaking seasonal records, with abnormal heat phenomena occurring repeatedly in seas around the world. On the 24th of last month, the sea temperature off southern Florida in the US reached 38.4 degrees Celsius.

The ocean plays a role in cooling heat from the atmosphere and absorbing greenhouse gases. However, as seawater gets hotter, its carbon absorption capacity decreases and the rate of glacier melting accelerates. This leads to a vicious cycle such as sea level rise.

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the world's largest coral reef system, has recently been suffering from widespread bleaching.

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Experts have expressed concerns that this phenomenon poses an immediate threat to marine ecosystems. Pierce Foster, a researcher at the International Climate Centre of the University of Leeds in the UK, said, “We are already witnessing coral bleaching in southern Florida,” and predicted, “There will be more impacts in the future.”

Coral bleaching is a phenomenon where corals turn white due to the loss of zooxanthellae, symbiotic algae living within coral cells, caused by rapid increases in sea temperature or pollution.

In fact, the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system in Australia, has been suffering unprecedented levels of climate crisis in recent years. Over the past seven years, four large-scale bleaching events have struck the area.

Experts pointed out that marine heatwave events, where sea surface temperatures rise, are intensifying year by year. The UK Guardian reported, “According to research published in 2019, the number of marine heatwave days from 1986 to 2016 increased by more than 50% compared to 1925 to 1954.”

Meanwhile, as sea temperatures rise, domestic seafood prices are also soaring. According to agricultural product distribution information on the 3rd, the average retail price of one frozen domestic hairtail fish (Galchi) was 4,931 won, up 30% from a year ago. The price per squid (Muluojingeo) also increased by 18.5% compared to a year ago, and prices of mackerel (11.4%), pollock (10.8%), yellow croaker (6.4%), and Pacific saury (5%) also rose.

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