Ocean temperatures hit a record high in February. The global average ocean surface temperature has reached 21.06 degrees Celsius, the EU Copernicus climate change office said on Thursday.
February’s average ocean surface temperature surpassed the previous record of 20.98 degrees, set in August 2023, data dating back to 1979.
The troubling ocean data comes after it emerged that February was the second-warmest month of the year on record, and the ninth consecutive February to do so.
Marine scientists warned this week that a fourth global mass coral bleaching event caused by warming waters in the Southern Hemisphere is likely, and could be the worst on record. Coral bleaching occurs when heat stress releases the colorful, beneficial algae that live in their tissues, leaving only a pale skeleton. This makes them vulnerable to starvation and disease, and many of them die. This can lead to the collapse of fragile reef ecosystems, as coastlines are left unprotected from erosion and storms, and fishing is insufficient.
The extra warmth is due to the El Nino climate pattern, brought on by warmer-than-usual surface waters in the eastern Pacific combined with human-induced climate change.
“What’s more surprising is that sea surface temperatures are at record highs across regions far from El Niño’s center of influence, such as the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans”, says climatologist Richard Allan of the University of Reading. This, he says, shows the strong impact of rising greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.
Although the global average sea surface temperature record excludes the polar oceans, things are not rosy there either.
Arctic sea ice covered areas hit their lowest level in February, ranking third on record at 28% below average.
El Niño is now weakening in the equatorial Pacific, Copernicus said, but air temperatures over the oceans remain unusually high.
