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Scientists highlight alarming rise in marine heat waves worldwide

A team of Earth scientists, marine biologists, oceanologists and climate change specialists affiliated with multiple institutions in Australia and the U.K. is warning of the dangers associated with an increase in the number of marine heat waves in recent years.

In a in the journal Nature Climate Change, they note that such heat waves negatively impact ocean processes, ocean life in the overheated regions, and coastal communities. Such heat waves are also associated with storms that can cause havoc when they make their way to land.

Over the past several years, scientists, the international press, environmental groups and many others have noted an increasing number of marine heat waves in all the world's oceans, in which certain regions of the ocean experience higher-than-average temperatures over an abnormally long period of time.

In their commentary, the authors note that one group of researchers found that the number of such heat waves in 2023–2024 was 240% higher than any other year in recorded history. They also note that the more often such heat waves occur, the more difficult it is for affected areas to recover.

Prior research has shown that marine heat waves lead to increased evaporation, which fuels storms, such as Cyclone Gabrielle, which killed 11 people in New Zealand back in 2023. Prior research has also shown that abnormally high water temperatures can lead to dolphins and whales swimming closer to shore than normal as they follow their prey, which often leaves them stranded.

It can also kill some creatures, such as mussels, that cannot simply move to cooler water—millions have died thus far. High water temperatures can also harm coral reefs, leading to bleaching, degradation or death, which in turn leads to loss of ecosystems and death of the sea creatures that lived there.

The team notes actions that conservation groups can take to save some of the creatures at risk, but ultimately, the only real solution is to stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere so that the planet will stop growing warmer.