"Warm Blob" linked to warmer temps, disrupted marine food webs in Pacific

An interesting article on the funky weather the West Coast (and the country as a whole) has experienced these last couple years, along with the implications "the Blob" brings to our coastal fisheries.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/04/09/warm-blob-in-pacific-ocean-linked-to-weird-weather-across-the-u-s/

Generally bad news all around, but as with most bad news, there is a silver lining: "the Blob" will likely result in another year of thresher sharks along the NorCal coast  .

Read this last week.  Interesting to know this.  What blew my mind was the depth at which this warmer water extends to.  Makes me scratch my head & wonder if it has anything to do with the Japan earthquake a few years back?  Seems a little tied together...

Reading the article made me reflect on all the fishing reports I've heard from the Humboldt area over the last several months.  Large runs of sardines instead of herring.  By-the-Wind Sailors showing up in early April.  Needlefish in salmon stomachs.  All connected to warmer temperatures.  It could spell bad news for juvenile salmon this year with crummy feeding conditions for them, similar to the crash we observed in 2008-2010.  Add that to the extreme drought conditions resulting in shit in-river rearing conditions, and salmon runs could be hurting VERY badly in the next few years.  Potentially even worse than the 2008-2010 runs  .

Interesting stuff. I'll have to read this article when I get home from work.

I met your bro Matt up at Shelter Cove on opener weekend and we saw some strange things at the fish cleaning station. A few salmon had BIG sardines in their guts, and I also saw several of what looked like pacific butterfish/pompano.

I've never heard of salmon feeding on pompano, but what do I know?

We also saw many velella out there on opening weekend.

The needlefish is common.  I have seen them in salmon early on for several years.  I have always heard of sardine reports on Humboldt Tuna every year, but they were usually caught late in the summer and by Woodley Island Marina.  There is a sardine fishery going on up in Winchester Bay Oregon recently from these large schools of sardines.

Rob - You ever seen a pompano/butterfish in a salmon's stomach?

A few butterfish were reportedly found in salmon outta HMB last week too. They seem pretty rare. So it's weird to hear there were some in Cove salmon around the same time.

Good info in that article. But I think there are too many variables to explain what's happening with this blob...only time will tell. Heck, maybe we're only realizing these types of 'weather/climate anomolies' exist because our technology is so precise & advanced nowadays.