What Effect Has El Nino Had on Seals and Sea Lions?

What Effect Has El Nino Had On Seals and Sea Lions?

El Nino, also called the "El Nino-Southern Oscillation" or ENSO, is a change in the ocean-atmosphere system in the eastern Pacific that occurs about every five to seven years. It contributes to significant weather changes around the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Among these changes are increased rainfall across the southern region of the U.S. and in Peru and drought in the West Pacific, affecting Australia and its neighboring nations.

During El Nino, the winds at the equator blow from west to east in the Pacific. These winds travel along the surface of the ocean and bring warm surface water heated by the tropical sun to the western coasts of North and South America. Rainfall follows the warm water eastward, with associated flooding in Peru and drought in Indonesia and Australia. A key indicator of El Nino is usually warm temperature along and on both sides of the equator in the central and eastern Pacific.

The warming typically starts in the north during late spring or summer and builds to a peak at the end of the year. The events are usually over by the following summer. The changes in ocean temp

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Some places got hit with heavy rains and floods, others faced drought, poor crops and starvation. Salmon, usually found off the Oregon and Washington coasts, were forced to swim into cooler Canadian waters. Mother sea lions normally spend one to two days away from their pups searching for food to make milk to nourish the pups, but because they had to search farther, they had to spend more than twice that time away from their pups. In addition to this, many Elephant seal pups drowned off the coast of California because El Nino caused their rookeries, or “pup nurseries”, to flood. Therefore, the El Nino is a troublesome case for many scientists. The hot, humid air over the oceans fuels tropical thunderstorms. Not only did the pups die from malnutrition from not being nourished from their mothers, but they were also malnourished because their mothers’ milk was poor in nutrients from the lack of food. However, people with kind hearts and environmentalists groups continued to pick up the weak pups. Southeastern Africa and northeastern Brazil experienced dry conditions, which reduced crops and resulted in starvation. Tissue samples were sent to New Zealand and as far away as New York to be tested to find out what the infection was and, if possible, to make a vaccine to vaccinate uninfected colonies. com 25 February 98

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meteora. Sea lion pups also died in masses on the coast of Chile. Fish in Chile are also being pushed from their normal limits and instead of spending more time awa!

y from their pups searching for food, mother sea lions are just abandoning their young. Similar conditions were seen all along the coast Peru and the ecosystem there slowly fell apart in a domino effect.

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