Report: Rising ocean temperatures changing behavior of marine species, spreading disease

A devastating new report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature paints a dire picture of what will happen if greenhouse gas emissions aren't curbed.

The report features the work of 80 scientists from 12 different countries, and states that rising ocean temperatures are the "greatest hidden challenge of our generation." Since the beginning of the 20th century, the ocean has absorbed more than 90 percent of the extra heat created by human activity, the report says, and if that heat had gone into the atmosphere instead, the planet's surface would have warmed by 36 degrees Celsius, rather than 1 degree Celsius. "What we are seeing now is running well ahead of what we can cope with," Dan Laffoley, an IUCN marine adviser and one of the report's lead authors, told The Guardian. "The overall outlook is pretty gloomy. We perhaps haven't realized the gross effect we are having on the oceans, we don't appreciate what they do for us. We are locking ourselves into a future where a lot of the poorer people in the world will miss out."

The report warns that at some point, even if greenhouse gas emissions are drastically cut, the warmer waters could cause tons of frozen methane to be released from the seabed, cooking the Earth's surface. Due to rising sea temperatures, sea turtles, jellyfish, seabirds, and other species are leaving the equator for cooler waters at a rate of up to five time faster than species on land, and the movement of fish away from areas in southeast Asia could cause harvests from fisheries to drop by almost a third by 2050. Already, more than 550 types of marine fish and invertebrates are considered threatened, and warmer waters will only make that number rise, the report warns. There is also evidence that the higher temperatures are causing vibrio bacterial disease, which can cause cholera, and algal bloom species, able to cause food poisoning. The IUCN is recommending an immediate reduction in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and enlarging protected areas of the ocean.

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