In hot water: what happens to marine life during heatwaves

Per The Conversation UK, Britain's waters are experiencing their third major marine heatwave in four years, with seawater temperatures recently hitting twenty degrees Celsius or warmer—a treat for beachgoers but a crisis for sea life. The warmth is triggering die-offs of kelp and seagrass, bleaching corals, and disrupting food webs, with ripple effects from microscopic plankton to seabirds and marine mammals. Locally, warmer waters have brought octopus to Devon and Cornwall's south coasts, shifted cold-water species like cod northward, and sparked harmful algal blooms—and if this heatwave persists into August, when UK seas are already at their seasonal peak, scientists warn the consequences could be catastrophic.

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