Congratulations to John Largier, Rick Grosberg, and Marissa Baskett, who received a seed grant from UC Davis Global Affairs to fund the program Oceans, Ecosystems, and People Along the West Coasts of the Americas, and will partner with Universidad Católica in Chile as part of future efforts to develop new research linkages, internationalize education, and formalize an institutional partnership centered on intellectual leadership.

The blob went unnoticed at first. In the summer of 2013, a high-pressure ridge settled over a Texas-size area in the northern Pacific, pushing the sky down over the ocean like an invisible lid. The winds died down, and the water became weirdly calm. Without waves and wind to break up the surface and dissipate heat, warmth from the sun accumulated in the water, eventually raising the temperature by 5 degrees Fahrenheit — a huge spike for the ocean.

An enormous area of warm water is pooling in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of North America. It has reminded scientists and headline-writers alike of “The Blob,” an unprecedented area of high sea surface temperatures that spread across the North Pacific between 2013-2016 and resulted in damaging effects on ocean and human health.

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Recent heatwaves across America and Europe have resulted in sweltering conditions and even several deaths. But it’s also taking a toll on other ecosystems such as sea life.

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During the marine heatwave of 2014-16, scientists from the University of California, Davis, noticed creatures typically seen only in places like Baja California, Mexico, showing up outside the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. These included warm-water species of jellyfish, crabs, nudibranchs, fish and even dolphins and sea turtles.

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New buoy will study the effect of ocean acidification and impact on San Francisco Bay

The expedition by a team from UC Davis’ Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory was to be some of the last physical labor of more than two years and more than a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of science—all of it being conducted, nervously, during some of the strangest conditions ever recorded in the Pacific Ocean. 

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