Record warm seas help to bring extraordinary species to UK waters

The UK seas have made their hottest start in the year since the records begin, helping to run some dramatic changes in marine life and for its fishing communities.

By the end of July, the average surface temperature of Britain’s water in seven months was more than 0.2C since 1980, showing the BBC analysis of the provisional meteorological data.

This may not look too much, but the sea of Britain is now much hot than a few decades ago, inspired by the burning of fossil fuels of humanity.

It is contributing to major changes in the UK’s marine ecosystem, some new species are entering our seas and struggling to deal with other heat.

Scientists and amateur naturalists have seen a notable range of species that usually widely widespread in the UK water, including octopus, bluefin tuna and mauve stinger jellyfish.

The abundance of these creatures may be affected by natural cycles and fishing practices, but many researchers indicate warming seas as an important part of their rise.

Dr., a senior research partner of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth. Bryus Stewart said, “Things like jellyfish, like octopus … are the types of things you expect to respond to climate change.”

He said, “This coal is a bit like a canary in the mine – the quite extraordinary changes we have seen in the last few years actually indicates an ecosystem under the flux,” he said.

19 -year -old Angler’s eager Harry Pollinghorn described how he regularly looks at Bluefin Tuna, which includes frantiical feeding franzy.

“This is like seeing a washing machine in water,” he said. “You can simply see the weight of white water, and then jumping tuna wings and tuna.”

Dr. Stewart reported that the bluefin tuna number has been built in Southwest England for the past decade for several reasons, including hot water and better management of their population.

Heather Hamilton, who snore with his father David every week from the coast of Cornwall, swings through a large bloom of the Salps, a species that looks like a jellyfish.

They are rare in the UK, but Hamilton has seen more and more of these organisms over the years.

“You are looking at these big chains that shine almost a little, fairy light”, he said.

“It was very good just out of this world, something that I have never seen before.”

But the extreme heat, combined with historical overfing, is pushing some cool-friendly species of UK such as Cod and Wolf-Fish on their boundaries.

“We definitely see this innings of cooler water species moving north towards the north,” Dr. Stewart said.

The position of the marine heatwave – unusually exists around parts of the UK almost throughout the year – unusually high -time of high sea surface temperature.

Some exceptional sea temperatures are also detected by the measurement from the UK coast, known as Vavannet and run by the Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).

And the record 2025 heat comes in 2023 and 2024 even after much sea temperatures.

The Met Office says that its data is provisional from the end of June 2024 and will be finalized in the coming months, but this is usually the result of only very minor changes.

“All ways through the year, on average it is hot as we have really seen [for the UK’s seas]”Prof. John Pinnegger, the chief advisor to climate change at Cefas, said.

,[The seas] Having been warming for more than a century and we have been looking at Heatwaves from now on, “he said.

“What used to be a very rare incident is now becoming very, very common.”

Like heatwaves on the ground, sea temperature is affected by natural variability and short -term weather. Clear, sunshine with low winds – such as most of the UK in early July – can heat the sea surface more quickly.

But the world’s oceans have taken about 90% of the Earth’s extra heat from the emission of humanity of planetary dioxide like carbon dioxide.

This is making the marine heatwave more likely.

“The main contributor in the sea heatwaves around the UK is the formation of heat in the sea,” Dr. Caroline Rolland, head of the oceans, cryosphere and climate change in the meteorological office said.

He said, “We predict that these incidents are going to be more continuously and more intense in the future” due to climate change, he said.

With a cold sea air low, these hot water can increase the heat of the land, and they also have the ability to bring heavy rainfall.

Hotter seas are also capable of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which may mean that our planet becomes more rapidly.

Sea heat is already facing challenges for fishing communities.

Ben Cooper has been a fisherman in the Whitestable on the North Kent coast since 1997, and the common whalek, depending on a type of sea snail.

But the whalek is a cold water species, and in 2022 a marine heatweave triggered a large-scale dye-off of these snails in Temes Muhana.

“A lot of our earnings are very 75% through whales, so you take it away and suddenly you are struggling,” Mr. Cooper explained.

Prior to the latest heatwave, the whales had begun to recover, but he forced the disadvantage to bring him back to his business.

Mr. Cooper recalled fishing trips with his father in the 1980s. Next, they will rely on Cod.

“We lost the cod because the sea originally became very hot. They moved forward to the north,” he said.

The accurate distribution of marine species varies year -up -head, but researchers hopes to change Britain’s marine life as man continues to heat the earth.

Dr. Pinnegger suggested, “Fishermen have to replace species that they target and catch in the long term.”

“And we may have to change species that we eat as consumers.”

Additional Reporting by Becky Dell and Miho Tanaka