Tragic processes have begun on the Pacific coast: a billion boils have been boiled in the water by a heat wave. Marine creatures

The shores of Kitsilan Beach in Vancouver have been teeming with tens of thousands of rotting and roasted marine life, including mollusks, mussels, starfish and snails, writes livescience.com. They died after record temperatures in British Columbia and other parts of the Pacific Northwest in late June, rising to 49.6 degrees on June 29 in Laithon, British Columbia, about 155 miles northeast of Vancouver. Celsius, according to Environment Canada.

Chris Harley, his biologist at the University of British Columbia, was “overwhelmed” when he found dead mountains in a stench. Ch. Harley estimates that more than a billion small coastal residents on the shores of the Salis Sea, from British Columbia to Washington state in the United States, have simply been baked by unbearable heat.

Creatures like mollusks and mussels that live in the coastal zone between the tidal lines can only withstand high temperatures for a short time, he said. However, during the heat wave, these unfortunate marine organisms could have been found in mid-afternoon to mid-afternoon, when low tide is at its lowest point. This means that they could be trapped on the ground for more than 6 hours.

“The shores of Midi are in some ways the equivalent of leaving a small child in a car on a hot day,” ChC told CBC News. Harley. – They are trapped on the shore until the parents arrive, in this case, until the flood returns. So they depend on the grace of nature and have little to do. Saturday, Sunday and Monday (June 26-28) were so hot that they just died. “

The shellfish were also baked alive in the Hud Canal in Washington state, which belongs to the Salis Sea. Hama Hama posted her photo on Instagram, calling the situation “catastrophic.”

The mass extinction of marine life will temporarily but significantly reduce the quality of the water in the more than 6,440 km of coastline of the Salis Sea: mollusks and mussels help to filter the sea water of pathogens and chemicals such as excess nitrogen , Chap. Harley. Bivalve mollusks are also in the middle of the food chain, so their death can affect the ability of mollusk-eating ducks and starfish to find food.

Populations of these marine organisms are expected to recover in one to two years, but if heat waves become more frequent and stronger, their effects on the numbers of these organisms could be long-lasting, the biologist noted.

The last heat wave, which similarly killed marine life, was in 2019, when thousands of mollusks were roasted to death in Bodiga Bay, north of San Francisco.

“If we don’t like it, then we must redouble our efforts to reduce carbon emissions and take other measures to reduce the impact of climate change,” he said. Harley.