Marine animal experts fear return of 'the Blob'
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHANG, PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER CEO, SAYING:
"We are def worried about the blob."
Pacific Marine Mammal Center CEO Peter Chang says he's concerned about the return of an ocean heat wave dubbed "the Blob."
It's threatening marine life in the Pacific Ocean with temperatures rising 5 to 7 degrees above average.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHANG, PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER CEO, SAYING:
"Our worst fear is another 2015."
That's when the blob first appeared, with its warm waters affecting the food chain.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHANG, PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER CEO, SAYING:
"It caused mass havoc among the sea lions and other marine mammal life."
That year, hundreds of sick and emaciated seals and sea lions came ashore in Huntington Beach, California.
Chang's Mammal Center rescued and rehabilitated about 600 sick pups, but many couldn't be saved.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHANG, PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER CEO, SAYING:
"We usually average 200 to 215 mammals a year so that blob was devastating."
Up the coast in the Bay area, the Center for Biological Diversity is also preparing for another bird die-off.
Emily Jeffers says they're stockpiling cages and enclosures.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) EMILY JEFFERS, CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY, SAYING:
"We're looking at a lot of really bad things that couold happen in the ocean, fish die-offs and that has ramifications throughout the food web. We saw sea lions dead and starving and dying on the beaches."
Chang says it's all a warning for the rest the world, especially people.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHANG, PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER CEO, SAYING:
"The animals are just the canary in the coal mines. What's happening to them is what's eventually going eventually to happen to us."
