Millions of seafood cooked alive in extreme heat off the coast of Canada

Millions of mussels, clams, starfish and snails ended up being cooked alive in the province of British Columbia (Canada) for the unprecedented heat wave recorded in North America in recent weeks. The heat wave made June the hottest month on record in North America last month, according to data from the European Union’s climate monitoring service.

During a historic heat wave that started at the end of June, Canada has repeatedly broken its all-time high temperature record, which was finally set at 49.6 degrees in Lytton on June 30. This small community 250 km northeast of Vancouver has become the symbol of this crisis: after breaking the heat record, it was the victim of fires that devastated 90% of its territory.

Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, told the network Radio-Canada What “Surprised“And believes that last week’s record-breaking heat wave in British Columbia may have killed over a billion coastal animals living along the Salish Sea coast.

In Canada and the United States, a “heating dome” sets temperature records

“(The situation) was a disaster there,” he said. “There is a very extensive mussel bed It covers the shore and most of the animals are dead, ”Harley explained.

As temperatures rose 40 degrees in Vancouver and several degrees in the interior of British Columbia, infrared cameras used by Harley’s team recorded temperatures above 50 degrees in coastal habitats rocky.

Intertidal animals like mussels, which live where land and sea meet, can withstand temperatures of up to 30 degrees for short periods of time, Harley said. But the scorching heat, combined with the low afternoon tides, created a dangerous combination for more than six hours straight.

“A mussel on the shore is kind of like leaving a small child in a car on a hot day.”Harley said. “They’re stuck there until the father returns, or in this case the tide is turning and there’s not much they can do. They are at the mercy of the environment. And Saturday, Sunday, Monday, during the heatwave, it was so hot that the mussels could not do anything. ”

“About 2,000 mussels” killed off the Salish Sea

Warned by the odour arose in the coastal area, Harley and a team of student researchers began to research the coasts of West Vancouver and Sunshine Coast, where discovered endless rows of mussels with dead meat adhering to the inside of the shell, as well as other dead creatures, including starfish and barnacles.

The scientist estimates that there could be “about 2,000 mussels” dead off the coast of the Salish Sea, and warned that the number is increasing “rapidly”. “The destruction will temporarily affect the quality of the water, as mussels and clams help filter the sea.”said Harley, quoted by Radio-Canada.

While the mussel bed will likely recover in a year or two, Harley noted that heat waves will occur more frequently and more severely due to climate change: “Over time, we just won’t be able to keep these filter feeder populations on the ground. they are therefore close to the extent to which we are used, ”he said.

Chris Neufeld, research scientist at the Bamfield Center for Marine Sciences on Vancouver Island, said “It was very disheartening to realize that we are actually in this moment that we have been predicting for a long time,” he said. The impacts could also extend to the ocean, where the water temperature in the region has risen by 3 ° C, he warned.

Critical marine species, such as coral reefs, seagrass beds and seagrass beds, depend on cooler temperatures to survive. “Researchers will deploy sensors in marine habitats around Vancouver Island this summer to document the effects of the heat wave,” said Neufeld.

An unprecedented extreme heat wave

North America experienced its hottest June in 2021, marked mostly by a historic heatwave in Canada, announced on Wednesday

“June 2021 was the hottest June in North America“Since this type of measurement is carried out, specifies the European program Copernicus on climate change (C3S), citing it as a clear example of global warming.

In the last month the average for the period 1991-2020 was exceeded by 1.2 degrees, and the temperatures recorded in June 2012, so far the hottest in North America, were exceededsaid Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S.

“These heat waves do not come out of nowhere. They occur in an overheating global climate which makes them more likely,” said Julien Nicolas, a fellow analyst. “The heat waves we saw last month in North America, western Russia and northern Siberia are just the latest examples of a continuing warming trend,” he said. he added.

“What happened in Canada represents a huge leap from the previous record. (…) What we can say is that these heat records are a powerful reminder of the impact that climate change has can have on our lives, ”said Carlo Buontempo.

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