{"id":416802,"date":"2026-07-29T17:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416802\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:40:27","slug":"whales-at-risk-hungry-pelicans-marine-heat-wave-hits-california-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416802\/","title":{"rendered":"Whales at risk, hungry pelicans: Marine heat wave hits California"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a boat off the coast of California, Sara Lesser gazes wistfully at dozens of dolphins playing in the vessel\u2019s wake. This summer, extreme heat is making such a scene increasingly rare. On daily tourist boat trips, \u201cthe number of whales and dolphins we\u2019re seeing is less than we would on a normal year,\u201d Lesser, a 39-year-old naturalist at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, told AFP. The warming of the ocean surface is forcing anchovies and sardines \u2014 which the mammals eat \u2014 to seek cooler waters, either at deeper levels or farther north.<\/p>\n

Dolphins and whales \u201care going to follow their food, and so we\u2019re seeing less sightings,\u201d Lesser explained. The educator aims to raise awareness among visitors about the plight of the animals, as fewer whale sightings is just a harbinger of larger negative changes to come to the marine ecosystem. Surface water temperatures along the California coast are now three to four degrees C above normal, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).<\/p>\n

The current heat wave has been ongoing for \u201cabout six months,\u201d said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at NOAA. What makes it more worrying is that it coincides with the return of El Nino, the weather pattern that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean \u2014 and periodically disrupts global climate. This year, scientists are predicting that El Nino could rank among the largest ever recorded.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"This<\/p>\n

This handout photo shows a dead Brandt\u2019s cormorant, spotted by scientists of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla, California.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A trio of common dolphins, the most abundant cetecean in the world, surface in Pacific Ocean waters on July 17, 2026 off the coast of Long Beach, California, as seen from an Aquarium of the Pacific Harbor Breeze Cruise.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Seals<\/p>\n

Seals rest on a buoy in Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Long Beach, California, as seen from an Aquarium of the Pacific Harbor Breeze Cruise.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Common<\/p>\n

Common dolphins, the most abundant cetacean in the world, swim beside a vessel on Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Long Beach, California, as seen from an Aquarium of the Pacific Harbor Breeze Cruise.<\/p>\n

Sea lions at risk <\/p>\n

\u201cChances are this El Nino is going to be stronger than the 2015-2016 one,\u201d Leising said, noting that a decade ago, the oceanic heat wave was devastating for the Golden State. At that time, conditions were much the same as they are now: El Nino aggravated a heat wave that had begun in 2014. Ocean waters became so hot that thousands of birds died because they could not reliably get fish on the surface. The carcasses of malnourished sea lions and whales washed up on beaches.<\/p>\n

In recent months, dozens of pelicans and cormorants were found dead near San Diego. Leising fears the sea lions \u2014 one of California\u2019s signature animals \u2014 could soon suffer. When temperatures rise, the females abandon their pups to hunt for food, he explained. Heat also fuels toxic algae blooms containing domoic acid, which contaminate the anchovy and sardine populations. This makes the sea lions sick, and eventually they could wash up dead.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Common<\/p>\n

Common dolphins, the most abundant cetacean in the world, surface from Pacific Ocean waters beside a vessel off the coast of Long Beach, California, as seen from an Aquarium of the Pacific Harbor Breeze Cruise.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A common dolphin, the most abundant cetacean in the world, leaps out of the Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Long Beach, California.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A common dolphin, the most abundant cetacean in the world, surfaces from Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Long Beach, California.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Common<\/p>\n

Common dolphins, the most abundant cetacean in the world, surface from Pacific Ocean waters beside a vessel off the coast of Long Beach, California, as seen from an Aquarium of the Pacific Harbor Breeze Cruise.–AFP photos<\/p>\n

In Monterey Bay, south of San Francisco, harmful algae are so prevalent that two humpback whales were found dead ashore in early June. Elliott Hazen, an adjunct professor in the ecology and evolutionary biology department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says that hasn\u2019t happened in a decade. \u201cThese are such large predators, it just highlights how much domoic acid there has to be in the ecosystem for it to affect them,\u201d Hazen told AFP.<\/p>\n

Great white sharks near shore <\/p>\n

The marine heat wave is also pushing great white sharks nearer to the shore \u2014 a rare sight. During the whale watching sail from the Aquarium of the Pacific, a shark briefly surfaced, its fin visible. \u201cIt\u2019s not common for us to see them,\u201d said Lesser, the aquarium guide. \u201cBut younger sharks like to be in warmer waters, and so we\u2019re seeing sharks closer to shore.\u201d That has frayed nerves more than once in the area.<\/p>\n

This week, a Malibu resident posted a video of a white shark swimming just a few yards (meters) from children, who were totally unaware of its presence. This past spring, swimming was banned three times at Huntington Beach due to sharks deemed to be aggressive. All these anomalies could become more and more regular \u2014 California has seen marine heat waves every year since 2019. \u201cWe know that climate change is adding more fuel to the fire,\u201d Hazen said. \u201cIf we have these marine heat waves over and over again, and we lose the ability to sustain the ecosystem the way we have in the past, we\u2019re going to lose some of the fish species that we rely on for food. So that\u2019s the big concern.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a boat off the coast of California, Sara Lesser gazes wistfully at dozens of dolphins playing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,19931,58583,166732,166731,166730,131,133,132,10045,65,12512],"class_list":["post-416802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-heat-wave","tag-hits","tag-hungry-pelicans","tag-kuwait-news","tag-kuwait-times","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-marine","tag-risk","tag-whales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}