El Niño Superheats California Waters, Upends Marine Life

WHO:

The Guardian - Dr. Jono Wilson, science director for The Nature Conservancy’s oceans program, said the changes were “like nothing we’ve ever seen.”

The Guardian - Dr. Francisco Chavez, senior scientist and leader of the biological oceanography group at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), described seabirds washing ashore and said their food fish were moving deeper.

The Guardian - Dr. Henry Ruhl, director of an ocean-observing collaboration housed at MBARI, said temperatures were “almost at room temperature 200ft below the surface.”

The Guardian - Dr. Scott Hamilton, San Jose State University professor and director at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, said losing kelp can mean losing about 40% of kelp-forest species.

The Guardian - Kriss Neuman, principal ecologist at Point Blue, studies the Pacific population of western snowy plovers, which are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The Guardian - Research technician Bennett Bugbee and colleagues at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories are cultivating kelp for restoration.

KQED - Climate scientist Daniel Swain of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources reported record ocean warmth off San Francisco.

WHAT:

The Guardian - El Niño is warming and expanding parts of the Pacific, raising California coastal water temperatures, producing record-smashing high tides, reducing phytoplankton, and disrupting marine food webs.

The Guardian - Monterey Bay sightings included halfmoon fish beyond their usual Southern California range, comb jellyfish usually seen near Hawaii, Humboldt squid, whale sharks seen in Malibu, and juvenile garibaldi fish seen for the first time in Monterey Bay.

The Guardian - Monterey Bay’s thermocline temperature climbed 8C (14.4F) above average; phytoplankton biomass dropped by an order of magnitude.

The Guardian - Starved or starving seabirds washed ashore by the hundreds between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Brown pelicans, Brandt’s cormorants, and common murres were among those affected.

The Guardian - About 62,000 dead or dying murres were found from California to Alaska during a prior warm period; the event ultimately caused an estimated loss of 4 million birds.

The Guardian - More than 90% of bull kelp was lost in some northern California areas after the previous El Niño. A restoration site recorded a kelp-canopy increase of more than 700% compared with control sites.

KQED - Water near the Farallon Islands reached about 65–66°F, around 10°F above the approximately 56°F seasonal norm and 2–3°F above the previous record for that point in the year.

KQED - Record ocean temperatures extended from Newport Beach north to Eureka; temperatures were unprecedented for the period after Nov. 1 and before May.

WHERE:

The Guardian - Reported ecological effects include Monterey Bay and California’s central coast; seabird strandings were reported between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

KQED - The Farallon Islands lie about 30 miles west of San Francisco; record warmth was reported along the coast from Newport Beach to Eureka.

WHY:

The Guardian - Warm, nutrient-poor water and strong waves stress kelp forests; declining kelp reduces habitat and food-web support. Warming may drive fish deeper, leaving seabirds with less accessible food.

KQED - El Niño weakens cold, nutrient-rich upwelling. California Department of Fish and Wildlife says fish may die or migrate, dependent seabirds may die or leave, and storms and swells often destroy kelp forests.

KQED - El Niño’s warm equatorial Pacific water moves north along the coast; the article says human-caused climate change worsens the natural climate phenomenon.

HOW:

The Guardian - MBARI’s sensor-equipped buoy at the mouth of Monterey Bay measures conditions below the surface. Researchers cultivate kelp in beakers and tanks, acclimate plants in shoreline basins when they reach 4–6 inches, then attach them to ropes on PVC pipes and place them in the ocean.

The Guardian - El Niño-related warm water is making seawater used in restoration tanks feel “like bathwater”; rising tides may require moving tanks farther inland.

KQED - El Niño involves trade winds reversing and a large mass of warm equatorial water moving toward South America, then splitting north and traveling up the coastline.

(UPDATED November 14, 2026 01:05 UTC)

El Niño is driving record warmth along California’s coast, disrupting marine food webs and kelp forests. Hundreds of starving seabirds have washed ashore as fish move deeper and plankton declines. Researchers are cultivating kelp for restoration, while experts warn warming threatens coastal wildlife.