We are pretty sure that you never even knew that such a page existed! This could classify
as one of the hardest pages to research because of rarity of some of the circumstances in
this page.
You have heard about the all the
floodings, all the droughts, and all the rainfall, so we thought that maybe we should
create a page that speaks about the smiles that El Niņo has put on some people's faces.
Exotic
Fishes Found North
People have been catching exotic saltwater fish in Fort Bragg, California. To even catch a
tuna fish this often is considered rare in this part of the USA. In order to catch these
fishes, people living here have to go much more inwards towards the ocean and further
south. However, the warm water in the Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of
California has caused the fishes to swim northwards in search of colder water where they
have made the fishers in Fort Bragg, 180 miles north of San Francisco, and other places
extremely happy.
Fishermen and aquaculturists could also
benefit from better forecasts. In fact, fish farmers in coastal Peru and Ecuador
anticipated this year's arrival of El Niņo by raising warm-water species, like shrimp, in
their holding pens instead of fish that prefer cooler waters.
With warning, Trenberth says, commercial
fishermen might make adjustments necessary to pursue species that are more abundant during
an El Niņo event.
As El Niņo raises the temperature of the
Pacific Ocean, other changes occur. The Arctic current that brings cold water to the
California coast is not as strong in an El Niņo year so there's not as much upwelling of
nutrient-rich waters.
"The whole food web is affected.
Phytoplankton growth is affected, so there's not as much food for fish. Further up the
food chain, there's a decline in a number of species off the coast. It affects birds, and
fur seals don't fatten up as well, so there's a higher mortality level," Trenberth
says.
