Blame it on "Climate Change" or El Niño" - Galapologas Sea Lion "Diet Change"

In the Face of Climate Change, These Sea Lions Are Getting Smart and The Tuna Herders.

The gist of these articles is that "climate change" has forced the sea lion to form packs to kill tuna rather than to eat sardines because of the "warming ocean." Has everyone forgotten that Spanish fishermen (now properly fisher-people) from shortly after the conquest of the Incas knew of El Niño, or "The Christ Child" for its frequent appearance around Christmas. This is a cyclical warming of the Pacific. It was discussed in the August 30, 1973 issue of the New York Times (link, excerpts below):

Excerpt of 1973 NY Times Article said:

There is a warm and unwelcome current of water that flows down from the Equator past the coast of Peru every year around Christmastime that the fishermen call "El Nifto De Navidad" -the Christmas Child. The warm current is unwelcome because it' is bad f ot the fish. ....But on the seventh year, El Nino cannot be denied; for as long as any of the old fishermen can remember, on the seventh year El Nino defeats the Humboldt current, making the waters warm and the fish sluggish. The anchovies huddle together, do not breed well, and the fishing is bad. Last year was one of those seventh years.

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I have a rather poor memory but do recall both that article and the offending El Niño of the winter of 1972-3; the same El Niño that gave NYC its unsnowiest winter.

We are now in another such El Niño. Perhaps the sea lions are smart enough to try another food; smarter than the panicky, agenda-driven and government-funded "scientists."

Re: Blame it on "Climate Change" or El Niño" - Galapologas Sea Lion "Diet Change"

Helps to read your own source>

"...as the waters around the volcanic islands have warmed, and the frequency and severity of El Niño events have increased, sardines have become harder and harder to find. Without this rich food source, the sea lions are struggling to survive—especially during El Niño years, when up to 100 percent of the pups, 50 percent of the yearlings, and a substantial number of adults may die."

Re: Blame it on "Climate Change" or El Niño" - Galapologas Sea Lion "Diet Change"

Quaestio said:

Helps to read your own source>

"...as the waters around the volcanic islands have warmed, and the frequency and severity of El Niño events have increased, sardines have become harder and harder to find. Without this rich food source, the sea lions are struggling to survive—especially during El Niño years, when up to 100 percent of the pups, 50 percent of the yearlings, and a substantial number of adults may die."

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ENSO tends to run in 30 year cycles of alternating frequency of El Niños and La Niñas. Also known as "cold phase" and "warm phase."

Re: Blame it on "Climate Change" or El Niño" - Galapologas Sea Lion "Diet Change"

JBG said:

ENSO tends to run in 30 year cycles of alternating frequency of El Niños and La Niñas. Also known as "cold phase" and "warm phase."

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What's your source for that claim of 30 year cycles? AFAIK, it's generally just El Niños that are referred to as a "warm phase" and La Niñas that are referred to as a "cold phase."

Source: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html

And El Ninos don't just happen every 7 years as your NY Times 1973 article says.

Here's some more detailed info on ENSO:

https://www.ess.uci.edu/~yu/PDF/Yu et al.AGU Book-2017.Chapter 1.pdf


Can you not see the upward trend in temperature in this graphic from NASA that also shows ENSO?



Source: https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20170118/NOAA-NASA_Global_Analysis-2016-FINAL.pdf

Re: Blame it on "Climate Change" or El Niño" - Galapologas Sea Lion "Diet Change"

Quaestio said:

What's your source for that claim of 30 year cycles? AFAIK, it's generally just El Niños that are referred to as a "warm phase" and La Niñas that are referred to as a "cold phase."

"La Niña is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño as the warm phase of ENSO."​

Source: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html

And El Ninos don't just happen every 7 years as your NY Times 1973 article says.

Here's some more detailed info on ENSO:

https://www.ess.uci.edu/~yu/PDF/Yu et al.AGU Book-2017.Chapter 1.pdf


Can you not see the upward trend in temperature in this graphic from NASA that also shows ENSO?

Source: https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20170118/NOAA-NASA_Global_Analysis-2016-FINAL.pdf

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The 1973 article was written durig the middle of a "cold phase" that ended with the Great Pacific Shift in 1976-7. The next cold phase started in 1997 or 2007. I tend to go with 2007 with a PDO-Neutral phase in between 1998 and 2007. Source, among others, is The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) (link). While that chart isn't perfect, i.e. understates 1972 El Niño and understates 1988 La Niña, it's a pretty good indicator of Pacific long-term trends. Chart:



Excerpt from explanations under chart:

Major changes in northeast Pacific marine ecosystems have been correlated with phase changes in the PDO; warm eras have seen enhanced coastal ocean biological productivity in Alaska and inhibited productivity off the west coast of the contiguous United States, while cold PDO eras have seen the opposite north-south pattern of marine ecosystem productivity.

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