A warm water mass heating up Pacific waters for months has arrived in B.C. — raising alarms about what impact those temperatures could have on marine life native to the coast.
The Pacific marine heat wave started forming about 1,600 kilometres off the coast in May, but in recent weeks has migrated west toward B.C. and Oregon. The warm water mass, about four million square kilometres in size, was predicted to wash up on B.C. shores by mid-August.
Over recent weeks, surface temperatures in the warm water mass have clocked in at up to five degrees higher than usual, prompting the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
