El Niño Alters Marine Life in the Pacific

El Niño has officially arrived in the Pacific, and NASA Science reports that the phenomenon is already disrupting the ocean food web. As it strengthens, El Niño weakens the winds that drive upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich deep water. Without that upwelling, phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, collapses. Satellite data from June twenty twenty-six shows plankton concentrations in the central Pacific have dropped sharply. The impact is already stark: Peru's anchovy fisheries have crashed, the government suspended the season to protect the stock, and pelicans have been spotted searching for food in urban ports. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center expects this El Niño to continue strengthening through the end of this year and persist into early spring twenty twenty-seven.

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