Swimming Thousands of Miles Can Help Some Marine Animals Avoid Ocean Heat
This displacement can constrain conservation efforts and fishery operations. Researchers say predicting future "thermal displacement" is incredibly complicated, since climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of marine heat waves as well as warm all of Earth’s oceans.
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00:00Overheated marine animals may swim tens to thousands of kilometers in search of cooler
00:09ocean waters.
00:10A NOAA-led team studied how far marine species like fish, whales, and turtles will go to
00:15escape marine heat waves, which are at least five consecutive days of hot water in patches
00:20of the ocean and have become more common in the past 100 years.
00:25Researchers say this displacement can constrain conservation efforts and fishery operations.
00:29They calculated animals' thermal displacement using data from NOAA satellites showing the
00:34surface ocean temperatures from 1982 to 2019.
00:38Plus they identified marine heat waves, or areas where water temps stayed in the highest
00:4210 percent ever recorded for that region and that time of year.
00:46Researchers found in higher-latitude areas, marine animals didn't have to travel as far
00:51to find cooler waters.
00:52But in the tropics, species may have had to travel thousands of kilometers to beat the
00:57heat.
00:58The study says predicting animals' future thermal displacement is incredibly tricky
01:02since climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of marine heat
01:06waves as well as warm all of Earth's oceans.
01:09The study was published in the journal Nature.