Ocean warming: more than just corals and sea level rise

If 2023 becomes the hottest year on record globally, it will be because of the oceans. The much warmer water in the Atlantic Ocean this summer, combined with the periodic warming of the central and eastern Pacific — known as El Niño — have sent ocean temperatures to levels unprecedented in human civilization.

For people living hundreds of miles from the coastline, the oceans may be out of sight and out of mind. But as they cover 70 percent of Earth’s surface, what happens in the oceans is significant.

Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer and current Administrator of NOAA — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — emphasizes some foundational principles that connect oceanography and meteorology.

“The weather patterns are affected by how energy and heat are distributed by the ocean. The moisture, the winds, the temperatures are all controlled by ocean processes, ” Spinrad said.

At a more fundamental level, every other breath you take is from the oceans.

“That’s the rule of thumb,” he said. “There’s a large volume of phytoplankton — the plants of the sea — that basically absorb carbon dioxide and put oxygen back into the atmosphere.”

Reviewing the data through time reveals the annual cycle, as the seasons are reversed between the northern and southern hemispheres.

“If you look at the satellite images, you can see the Earth basically breathing — the pulsing between the northern and southern hemispheres,” Spinrad said.

NOAA’s most visible agency is the National Weather Service, but the National Ocean Service continues to explore the deep, as new discoveries continue to yield benefits for those of us back on land.

Compounds in a specific type of cone snail have been effective in treating nerve pain. Substances in a Caribbean sponge have yielded the first marine cancer drug developed to treat leukemia and lymphoma. Materials within a deep ocean sponge have been used to treat breast cancer.

He is energized to find out what else might be out there.

“By some estimates, there are as many as one million species of organisms in the sea that are still as yet undiscovered,” Spinrad said.

Coral bleaching and sea level rise are among the most visible impacts of the warming climate, but NOAA is also working to understand how fish and other sea life is adapting. Or more realistically, relocating.

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“I was in Nome, Alaska last year, where they’re no longer seeing as many salmon and pollock and crab. Now they’re starting to get Pacific Cod — where they’ve never seen Pacific Cod before,” Spinrad said.

New technologies have allowed NOAA to help identify and track fish populations so they can sustainably be accessed for commercial and recreational fishing.

Spinrad is impressed with the new techniques.

“The ability to sample water — and know what was in that water over the last 12 hours by the DNA that is left in the water — from the skin cells and other materials that fish leave in the water — phenomenal," he said. "We know that many of the species: the pollock, the haddock, the salmon are moving into different waters. We will be able to predict where those stocks will be in the next five years, 10 years, 20 years.”

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Spinrad emphasized the need to protect the waters so the fish will be around for generations, discussing what it means for a recreational fisherman: “We call it maximum sustainable yield — our ability to understand how many fish are there, where are they, and how can we ensure that he can catch the fish he wants, but there will be plenty in the sea for his kids, grandkids to catch in the future.”

Although most of NOAA’s work is done to prepare and adapt to the warming climate, the agency works to ensure that marine life is minimally impacted as renewable energy sources — such as offshore wind turbines — are built and commissioned.

“We are required by law via the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act to ensure there is no harm done,” he said.

Spinrad is keenly aware of the movement of the North Atlantic Right Whales and an offshore wind farm being developed 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.

“None of the activities associated with offshore wind development are attributable to any of the impacts we are seeing on whales off the East Coast right now,” he said.

The work continues to understand and protect the oceans, especially in a time when they are changing rapidly.

Sean Sublette is the chief meteorologist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Photos: Record-breaking heat scorches communities around the world