THE Surf Report- Early Edition

Summer's here!

SURF:

It's about time. Last weekend was a trip. Lots of clouds and W wind resulted in our water temps dropping like a rock. July 15th saw water temps at 72 degrees and then drop last weekend a full 15 degrees to 57. Ouch. Luckily the sun has been out the past few days and the wind has been SSW, helping raise temps back to a manageable 68. But enough of the negativity- let's talk about the good stuff.

New S is showing on the buoys tonight and will continue to fill in through Saturday. The storm was SSE of us so it wasn't exactly aimed our way (i.e. SW), but we'll have chest high waves over the weekend and shoulder high waves towards the OC. We'll also have NW windswell to cross things up. Along with the warmer water temps and afternoon sunshine at the beaches, it's looking to be a fun weekend.

Tides the next few days are 3' at sunrise, down to 1' mid-morning, up to 4.5' late afternoon, and down slightly to 3' at sunset.

FORECAST:
For those of you lucky enough to have Monday off and make it a big 4 day weekend for the 4th, we'll have leftover smaller SW on Monday and peaking NW windswell for more chest high sets. The 4th and 5th back off to the waist high+ range from the combo swells then the NW windswell picks up again towards Thursday.

Charts show a SSW swell taking shape this weekend which should give us shoulder high SW starting the 7th into the 9th of July. Looking pretty fun if things hold up. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves & weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

WEATHER:

Finally back to where we should be for summer. Night and morning low clouds at the coast and sunny afternoons. Temps will be mid-70's and we'll stay that way for most of next week. Models show a slight chance for thunderstorms in the deserts/mountains next weekend but that's the only real excitement around here for the foreseeable future. Speaking of thunderstorms, with the lack of a real El Nino in our waters (as compared to the '15 and '16 summers), we haven't had any real hurricanes to track. We've had 4 named storms off Mainland Mexico and only 1 (Dora) hit minimal hurricane strength. So far a slow start to the season.

BEST BET:
Saturday with peaking SW/NW or late next week with better SW.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

If you’ve been an avid reader of the THE Surf Report over the years (and I know who you are), you probably remember my riveting expose' of the Megalodon - the world’s biggest carnivorous predator. You think those puny 10’ Great Whites off our beaches lately are scary? How about a 60’ Megalodon?! Now I have your attention. Thankfully for us, it’s not around anymore. New research may have found the culprit of it's extinction. I’ll let Newsweek explain:

The biggest shark to have ever lived was wiped out during a previously unknown global extinction event that saw 36 percent of the world’s marine megafauna disappear.

Carcharocles megalodon could reach up to 60 feet in length and had jaws measuring 9 feet wide. It lived from 23 million years ago up until the end of the Pliocene Epoch, around 2.6 million years ago. What caused its extinction has been the matter of debate for many years—shifting environmental conditions, a decline in prey and the emergence of new marine predators all appear to have played a role.

However, in a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists found the demise of the megalodon was part of a larger extinction event that affected huge swaths of marine life during the Pliocene (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago).

The end of the Pliocene saw huge changes to the world's climate. Global temperatures and sea levels fell dramatically, leading to widespread changes to Earth’s flora and fauna. In the ocean, many individual species were known to have gone extinct as others began to emerge. But to what extent this was happening was not known.

Scientists led by Catalina Pimiento from Switzerland’s University of Zurich, carried out a meta-analysis in which they gathered all of the published fossil records from this period. “Individual extinct ions were widely known from the paleontological literature,” she tells Newsweek. “We found they were part of a global extinction event.”

The previously unknown extinction event included marine mammals, seabirds, turtles and sharks, with species being lost at a rate of around three times higher than during the Cenozoic Era—the geological period to which the Pliocene belongs. In total, 36 percent of all Pliocene marine megafauna went extinct.

The researchers also looked at the marine megafauna from the Pleistocene Epoch, which followed the Pliocene. By doing this, they were able to show which species were being lost and which were emerging at this time.

Marine mammals were found to have lost 55 percent of their diversity. Up to 43 percent of sea turtle species disappeared, while 35 percent of seabirds and 9 percent of sharks went extinct.

“This extinction took place in both coastal and oceanic species,” Pimiento says. “We just focused on coastal species to assess the effects of the extinction on functional diversity, and to evaluate if the loss of coastal areas played a role.”

Findings showed that seven functional entities—groups of animals with unique traits—went extinct from coastal ecosystems, which led to the decline of species throughout. “We found that changes in sea level caused by glaciations resulted in the loss of coastal areas and hypothesize that caused this extinction,” Pimiento says.

In a statement, she says, “Our models have demonstrated that warm-blooded animals in particular were more likely to become extinct. For example, species of sea cows and baleen whales, as well as the giant shark C. megalodon, disappeared. This study shows that marine megafauna were far more vulnerable to global environmental changes in the recent geological past than had previously been assumed.”

The team now plans to look at how their findings can help provide insight on the extinctions of modern megafauna, like whales and seals. “Our study cautions that as anthropogenic climate change accelerates and triggers regime shifts in coastal ecosystems, the potential consequences for marine megafauna should not be underestimated,” the researchers concluded.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

The water has finally warmed up, we have a little combo swell, and the sun is out. No better time for a Surf Meeting! Haven't been to one? You're missing out. Come on down to George's tomorrow (Friday, June 30th) and be part of this community you love. Network with other surfers, find out how we support local businesses, learn about our charitable work, grab some breakfast, and try out the latest SUPERbrand boards. EPK Collection will also be making an appearance with free surf posters for all. Hosted by the North County Board Meeting, look for the green tent just south of the Chart House in Cardiff. From 7-9 AM, it's a great way to start a long July 4th weekend. Thanks for the support and we'll see you tomorrow!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Always love coming across shots like this. Where could it be? Maybe Orange County due to the exposed rocks in the line-up? Looks empty though- maybe West Oz? Red dirt gives us a better clue- could be Hawaii? Only one who knows is Aussie photographer Ed Sloane. Get more clues at his website here.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Made of Money
YouTube Sensation
A Walking Encyclopedia of Surfing (Not That It's Really Worth Anything)

THE Surf Report- Early Edition

And we're back.

SURF:
After a great weekend of weather at our local beaches, the past few days have taken a turn for the worse with cool and overcast skies- and a touch of drizzle. Welcome back June Gloom!

We've had plenty of surf though as we started off with shoulder high sets from the S on Monday and NW joined the party on Wednesday. Today was more of the same with shoulder high sets (and overhead waves in the OC) while the clouds hugged the coast and the deserts baked. For tomorrow into the weekend, the S backs off slightly and the NW hangs around. Look for chest high waves- with bigger sets towards the OC- and overcast conditions again. Along with all the clouds the past few days, water temps dropped a few degrees from 71 to 67. Not that big of a deal but trunks may be out of the question- especially with the clouds.

Tides this weekend are -1' at sunrise, up to 4' before lunch, down to 1.5' late afternoon, and up to 6' at sunset.

FORECAST:
Not much on the charts the past few days.

We had a small storm off New Zealand recently which will keep us in rideable waves early next week. Look for more chest high NW/SW combo swell starting Monday afternoon into Wednesday morning.

Models show some fairly unorganized storms occurring early next week which may give us shoulder high sets from the SSW around the 1st of July. Nothing big but better than nothing. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves & weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

WEATHER:

Crazy week. Hot as Hades temperatures led to cancelled flights, buckled roads, and shattered records. But not here at the coast. Low clouds stuck to the beaches and I even had to turn on my windshield wipers this morning. Storm Watch! It's feast or famine here in Cali. Look for more of the same this weekend and most likely next week- clouds at the beaches and scorching heat in the deserts. The high pressure responsible for all this nonsense may shift slightly next weekend and there's a chance we could see sun again for the start of a long July 4th weekend.

BEST BET:
Tomorrow with lingering SW/NW or Tuesday with new similar sized SW/NW.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Waves and weather go hand in hand. Like ice cream and apple pie. Or Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Or Curren and Rincon. Or Jack and Alana. I'm getting off track here. What I'm trying to say is that if it wasn't for the weather, we wouldn't have waves of course. This week was quite the story for weather. Not along the immediate coast fortunately as the fog kept us cool and comfortable. But our deserts here in California were downright deadly- and record breaking. Let's start with the extreme:

Death Valley. As the name implies, you wouldn't want to live there (or even survive the summer for that matter). Temps on Wednesday hit an incredible 127 degrees. It's one thing to be outside in uncomfortable 100 degree temperatures. But approaching 130 degrees?! That doesn't even seem real. Let's put that into perspective:
-The highest temperature ever recorded ON EARTH was 134 degrees. So Death Valley was only 7 degrees away from historic heat. That's like saying the beach was 67 this morning and it may reach 74 by lunch. Not that much of a stretch.
-Ground temperatures on Wednesday approached 200 degrees. For comparison's sake, you can safely cook meat at 160 degrees. Imagine standing barefoot?!
-The low temp at night was 96 degrees. No real relief there.

As far as our local deserts go, Ocotillo Wells reached a high of 124 degrees; the highest temperature ever recorded in San Diego County. If you're wondering what the previous record was, that mark was 122 degrees in Borrego Springs. Guess when? Exactly a year ago on June 20th, 2016. Creepy.

Las Vegas wasn't much better as it hit an all-time record of 117 degrees and Phoenix hit 119, which you probably heard led to cancelling flights due to hot air being thinner and a detriment to the physics of aviation. The central valley (Modesto, Fresno, Sacramento, etc) all floated around 107-109 degrees- all record breakers. The extreme heat was also blamed for buckling roads from San Fran to Sacramento.

One fact that may only interest me is that with the lack of clouds, the mountains cool down fairly quickly at night. Mammoth Mountain is only 125 miles from Death Valley (about the same as San Diego to LA). Not that far, right? Well, on Wednesday it felt like the distance between the moon and the earth. The low temp in Mammoth was 47 degrees and the high in Death Valley of course was 127. An astonishing 80 degree difference just a couple hours away. For comparison's sake, the low in San Diego tonight will be 61 and the high in LA tomorrow will be 77. A paltry 16 degree difference. Yawn.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Such a good wave. California truly is blessed in the wave department: Blacks, Swamis, Trestles, Wedge, Malibu, Rincon, Mavericks, Ocean Beach, etc. etc. etc.- you basically could try and surf up and down this wave rich coast the rest of your life and most likely never surf the same wave twice.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
One In A Million
Won't Sleep Until The Lakers Call My Name
Once Saw Da Cat Pig Dog On His Fish

THE Surf Report- Early Edition

I win.

SURF:
I thought that if I kept predicting sunshine, it would eventually happen. Well you know what? I win. We have sun this weekend. And then some. More on that below in the WEATHER section. First up, let's talk about how the surf was the past few days.

It's been a mixed bag lately. Lots of NW windswell early in the week and clearing skies. Today we had amazing beach weather and small but fun combo swell for chest high surf.

For Friday, the SW peaks and the NW windswell hangs around for more chest high surf and great weather. BEWARE the patchy fog though! Should dissipate by mid-morning though so you know what that means: Sun's Out Fun's Out!  (or Sun's Out Gun's Out or Sun's Out Bun's Out, take your pick). The combo swell fades over the weekend for waist high surf and the occasional chest high set towards the OC. Won't matter though- warm air temps + sun = water temps near 70 this weekend (and Scripps Pier hit 72 today!) so it will be worth it to just paddle out regardless.

Tides the next few days are 2' at sunrise, down to 0' mid-morning, up to 4' late afternoon, and down to 3' at sunset. And in case you're wondering, the sun is now coming up at 5:30 AM and setting at 8 PM. That's 14 1/2 hours to surf!  Or if you're surfing in British Columbia, sun's coming up at 5 AM and setting at 9:30 PM. That means you can work late, have dinner with the family, get the kids to bed around 8... AND STILL GO FOR A SURF. Nuts.

FORECAST:

Not much happening to start the work week- except great beach weather again- and we finally get some SW filling in Tuesday for shoulder high sets. That rolls into Wednesday and tapers off slightly but a smaller chest high reinforcement shows on Thursday.

After that we get a breather and more chest high+ SW should arrive around the 28th. All the while we have pulses of smaller background waist high NW windswell. And great weather most of the week. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves & weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

WEATHER:

As mentioned above, we have a heat wave people. High pressure in the SW U.S. is going to cook the deserts and especially Death Valley where it's forecasted to hit over 125 degrees. Now I don't know about you, but anything over 100 is unbearable. And 125? Well, there's a reason they call it Death Valley. For us at the coast though, patchy fog and mild ocean temps will help moderate our air temps in the mid-70's along the shore and mid-80's a couple miles inland. Valleys will hit 90+. Long story short- don't go inland this weekend and make sure to keep a cold one close by. Temps should start to get back to normal by next weekend.

BEST BET:
Tomorrow with peaking chest high SW/NW or next Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday morning with new shoulder high SW and a peaking heat wave.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Thought it was time for a quick refresher course on waves. So here goes: Waves involve the transport of energy without the transport of matter. In short, a wave can be described as a disturbance that travels through a medium, transporting energy from one location (its source) to another location without transporting matter. In our case, ocean waves. I'll let NOAA take it from here:

The ocean is never still. Whether observing from the beach or a boat, we expect to see waves on the horizon. Waves are created by energy passing through water, causing it to move in a circular motion. However, water does not actually travel in waves. Waves transmit energy, not water, across the ocean and if not obstructed by anything, they have the potential to travel across an entire ocean basin.

Waves are most commonly caused by wind. Wind-driven waves, or surface waves, are created by the friction between wind and surface water. As wind blows across the surface of the ocean or a lake, the continual disturbance creates a wave crest. These types of waves are found globally across the open ocean and along the coast.

More potentially hazardous waves can be caused by severe weather, like a hurricane. The strong winds and pressure from this type of severe storm causes storm surge, a series of long waves that are created far from shore in deeper water and intensify as they move closer to land. Other hazardous waves can be caused by underwater disturbances that displace large amounts of water quickly such as earthquakes, landslides, or volcanic eruptions. These very long waves are called tsunamis. Storm surge and tsunamis are not the types of waves you imagine crashing down on the shore. These waves roll upon the shore like a massive sea level rise and can reach far distances inland.

The gravitational pull of the sun and moon on the earth also causes waves. These waves are tides or, in other words, tidal waves. It is a common misconception that a tidal wave is also a tsunami. The cause of tsunamis are not related to tide information at all but can occur in any tidal state.

In summary, waves transmit energy, not water, and are commonly caused by the wind as it blows across the ocean, lakes, and rivers. Waves caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun are called tides. The ebb and flow of waves and tides are the life force of our world ocean- and the center of my life!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

I was just thinking about the Golden State Warriors. Ever notice where pros go to blow off steam once they win a championship? Big yacht in the Bahamas. White sand beaches in the Greek Isles. Hang out with Yeezy in Vegas. Not me. If I just won the title (again), I'd undwind here. Make sure to check out more of photographer Andrew Shields' work here.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Always Giving 111%
Tired of TMZ Following Me Around
Wore Mirage Boardshorts While I Surfed A Secret Spot With The Invisible Man

THE Surf Report- Early Edition

Let's try this again. Until I see the sun.

SURF:

I thought for SURE we'd see a little bit of sun last weekend. But alas it was not to be. With our cool water temps (cool being a relative term at 65 degrees vs. 70 during the '15 and '16 El Ninos), it hasn't been warm enough to keep the clouds and fog at bay. So let's try this again... models are hinting at less clouds at the beach this weekend. Still cool weather, but maybe a chance of sun by mid-day.

Along with a little more sun, we have building NW windswell. Tomorrow look for leftover NW/SW for chest high sets in the far N county. The SW backs off on Saturday while the NW continues to build into Sunday. We should have chest high+ surf and cool conditions.

Tides the next few days are 0' at sunrise, up to 3.5' mid-day, down to 2' mid-afternoon, and up to 5' at sunset.

FORECAST:
The small but building NW over the weekend peaks Monday afternoon with shoulder high sets- bigger towards SD. That lasts into Tuesday morning.

Thursday sees a small NW/SW combo arrive for shoulder high sets.

Further out, models show the the southern hemi starting to get it's act together and we may have head high SW late next weekend.

After that, charts have a good storm setting up mid-month which should give us overhead SW around the 3rd week of June. A good way to start off the 1st week of summer. Make sure to keep up to date on the changing conditions at Twitter/North County Surf. 

WEATHER:

As mentioned above, the clouds should dissipate earlier this weekend (should being a relative word) and we may have sun mid-day at our beaches. For next week, the sun will be on and off again with cool conditions. Models show high pressure trying to exert itself next weekend for a slight warm up and more consistent sunshine.

BEST BET:
Monday with peaking NW windswell or next Thursday with better combo swell.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

The San Diego Union Tribune reported this week that San Diego’s Rose Canyon fault produces powerful earthquakes more frequently than once believed, (but don’t worry- a major temblor isn’t imminent), according to researchers from San Diego State University.

SDSU scientists who studied the part of the fault located in the Old Town neighborhood determined that the system — which before 1990 was thought to be inactive — generates a magnitude 6.5 to 6.8 earthquake about once every 700 years.

Seismologist Tom Rockwell said earlier analysis indicated that such quakes occur every 1,000 to 1,500 years on the 40 mile-long fault, which extends from San Diego Bay through Old Town and across Mission Valley, then up Rose Canyon through Mt. Soledad and finally heading offshore at La Jolla. In its offshore portion, the fault is known to extend as far north as Oceanside.

“A powerful quake in the mid- to upper 6's could cause liquefaction around San Diego and Mission bays and locally in Mission Valley, and cause the land to be offset across the fault, which would damage buildings,” said Rockwell, one of California’s most experienced seismologists. Drake Singleton, his doctoral student, said: “We could see the history of ruptures in the soil of Old Town, and that told the story.” The research team said it also found evidence at a dig site in Old Town that the Rose Canyon fault has produced at least two additional quakes in the magnitude 5.0 to 6.0 range in recent centuries — shaking referred to as background seismicity. “A 6.0 quake likely wouldn’t break the surface of the ground, but it could cause liquefaction,” said Rockwell, who has dug trenches on faults across Southern California. Even so, Singleton’s work shows that the 1862 earthquake in San Diego, estimated at magnitude 6, did produce minor ground breakage in Old Town that wasn’t previously known.

Last fall, Singleton and Rockwell dug a 160-foot long, 3-foot wide trench on the Presidio Hills Golf Course and spent months studying the orange-gray sediment for traces of past quakes. The effort led them to discover that a major quake had occurred before the founding of Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769. “If we had dug in a place where there were no faults, the sediment wouldn’t be very disrupted at all,” Singleton said. “But in the Rose Canyon trench, things are very chaotic. You can see the past.

The new finding comes two months after UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography released a study saying that offshore segments of the Rose Canyon and Newport-Inglewood faults could rupture and produce a 7.3 quake, damaging large areas of the Southern California coastline. The paper added to long held beliefs by scientists that California’s offshore faults can be as perilous as those that are on shore.

So what if there was a large earthquake along our coastline? The obvious answer is a chance of a damaging tsunami and structural damage to our buildings. One little known consequence though is that certain surf breaks may be enhanced- or destroyed- depending if the land gets lifted as a result from the earthquake. This happened in Costa Rica after an earthquake on the Caribbean side in 1991. Some surf spots in the area -- which were already shallow and gnarly -- were pushed up and made dry. It rearranged the whole coastline.

Another famous incident was a result of the Nias earthquake in 2009. As reported by Australia’s Track Magazine: “The change in the reef at Lagundri Bay was quite obvious. Previously at 4’-6’, the wave broke but it was a tease, a brief gorgeous face that left you wanting more as the wall rapidly dissipated after your first turn. Any smaller than head high and it didn’t break on the outside at all. Now the wave at this size was at least twice as long, and even offered barrels,  although they are very tide dependent. The lineup seems more complex than it used to be, with a bit more variability from wave to wave. It is definitely an improvement at this size. It is hard to imagine it any better at six-foot-plus than the old reef was. With the reef now over a 3’ higher than before, so far it seems to have paid off.  The same sadly can’t be said for the best waves in the Hinakos, the outer islands off west Nias. Ex-classic left, Asu is severely compromised, and Bawa, formerly an epic and perfect mimic of small Sunset, as well as a swell magnet, is wrecked.”

For us in Southern California, I would assume reef breaks like Windansea and Seaside would be enhanced as high tide would be meaningless with shallower reefs. But reefs that are already shallow- like Big Rock- may become obsolete. Hopefully ‘The Big One’ won’t hit and we won’t have to find out.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

From this angle, the Wedge looks almost rideable. But we know better.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
I'm Big In Japan
I've Got A Modeling Gig
My 1st Surfboard Is On Display In The Smithsonian

THE Surf Report- Early Edition

Let's try this again.

SURF:

On the last THE Surf Report, I mentioned Memorial Day Weekend would start off slow and by Monday, sunny skies and good surf would prevail. Well... the surf showed up (sort of) and the clouds hung around the beach all day. And all of this week for that matter. So let's try this again: Look for a slow start tomorrow with clouds at the beach and small SW/NW.

By Saturday, the sun should make an appearance at the beach and we have building SW/NW for chest high waves and shoulder high sets in far N county. That holds into Sunday.

Water temps are still a little chilly for June (low 60's) and tides this weekend are 3.5' at sunrise, down to 0.5' at lunch, and up to 5' at sunset.

FORECAST:

Good news is that the SW/NW combo rolls into Monday but starts to taper off by Tuesday and is joined by a little NW.

Bad news is that there isn't much after that. Should be pretty flat by next weekend. So in the meantime, surf your brains out the next few days. Make sure to keep up to date on the changing conditions at Twitter/North County Surf. 

WEATHER:

Weak high pressure should start to build tomorrow and the sun may make an appearance at the beach. Saturday and Sunday should be pretty typical Southern California weather- night/morning low clouds/fog and partly sunny skies at the beach by mid-day. Weak low pressure returns early in the week and we're back to clouds at the beach most of the day. Models hint at more sun later in the week. Along with the small surf and boring weather next week, it's not looking to exciting.

BEST BET:
Saturday/Sunday with fun surf and sunny (hopefully) skies.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

First I had to worry about melting ice caps and rising oceans. Then juvenile sharks this spring set up camp off our coast. And now this: Acid in our coastal waters. Let me have Scientific Reports explain:

A three-year survey of the California currents along the West Coast found persistent, highly acidified water throughout our ecologically critical nearshore habitat. Some pH measurements were found to be as low as any oceanic surface waters in the world.  The lower the pH level, the higher the acidity. Previous studies have documented a global decrease of 0.11 pH units in surface ocean waters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Like the Richter scale, the pH scale in logarithmic, so that a 0.11 pH unit decrease represents an increase in acidity of approximately 30 percent.

Researchers say that the acidic conditions will continue to worsen because the atmospheric carbon dioxide primarily to blame for this increase has been rising substantially in recent years.

They did find though "refuges" of more moderate pH environments that could become havens for some marine organisms to escape more highly acidified waters, and which could be used as a resource for ecosystem management.

"The threat of ocean acidification is global and though it sometimes seems far away, it is happening here right now on the West Coast of the United States and those waters are already hitting our beaches," said Francis Chan, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University and lead author on the study.

Why should we worry about highly acidic waters along our coastline? I haven’t felt my skin burning or my eyes stinging when I surf. It’s potentially dangerous because many organisms (i.e. smaller than us AND the very animals that make the ocean their home) are very sensitive to changes in pH. Chan said negative impacts already are occurring in the California current system, where planktonic pteropods -- or small swimming snails -- were documented with severe shell dissolution.

"The West Coast is very vulnerable. Ten years ago, we were focusing on the tropics with their coral reefs as the place most likely affected by ocean acidification. But the California current system is getting hit with acidification earlier and more drastically than other locations around the world."

A team of researchers developed a network of sensors to measure ocean acidification over a three-year period along more than 600 miles of the West Coast. The team observed near-shore pH levels that fell well below the global mean pH of 8.1 for the surface ocean, and reached as low as 7.4 at the most acidified sites, which is among the lowest recorded values ever observed in surface waters.

"This is about more than the loss of small snails," said Richard Feely, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. "These pteropods are an important food source for herring, salmon and black cod, among other fish. They also may be the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine' signifying potential risk for other species, including Dungeness crabs, oysters, mussels, and many organisms that live in tidepools or other near-shore habitats."

Chan said the team's observations, which included a broad-scale ocean acidification survey via ship by NOAA, did not vary significantly over the three years -- even with different conditions, including a moderate El Niño event.

"The highly acidified water was remarkably persistent over the three years," Chan said. "Hotspots stayed as hotspots, and refuges stayed as refuges. This highly acidified water is not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; it is right off our shore. Fortunately, there are swaths of water that are more moderate in acidity and those should be our focus for developing adaptation strategies."

The researchers say there needs to be a focus on lowering stressors to the environment, such as maintaining healthy kelp beds and sea grasses, which many believe can partially mitigate the effects of increasing acidity.

Further, the moderately acidified refuge areas can be strategically used and managed, Chan pointed out. "We probably have a hundred or more areas along the West Coast that are protected in one way or another, and we need to examine them more closely," he said. "If we know how many of them are in highly acidified areas and how many are in refuge sites, we can use that information to better manage the risks that ocean acidification poses." Managing for resilience is a key, the researchers conclude.

"Even though we are seeing compromised chemistry in our ocean waters, we still have a comparably vibrant ecosystem," Chan said. "Our first goal should be to not make things worse. No new stresses. Then we need to safeguard and promote resilience. How do we do that? One way is to manage for diversity, from ensuring multiple-age populations to maintaining deep gene pools. "The greater the diversity, the better chance of improving the adaptability of our marine species."

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Don't worry if you miss the first one- there's plenty more out the back.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
National Treasure
Made The Cover of Sgt. Pepper
Bodysurfed Nazare Today. So Fun.