The Ocean is Dying, But Can We Still Eat It?

The dark matter of climate change

Gosh, I don’t even know where to start this. It is just so baffling.

Yesterday a Croatian TV network aired the news that sardines are dying in the Adriatic sea because the water is reaching 30°C (86°F for my American friends). Temperatures like this are without precedence in this region, and marine life struggles to survive.

Croatia has or should have a significant stake in this issue. They have the longest coastline in the east, and most of their GDP comes from tourism or fishing. They practically own this sea and live from it.

They invited an expert, and the anchor basically had two questions for him:

• will the more tropical species invade our seas, and
• can we expect sharks to follow suit?

The expert said that it’s complicated. Adriatic sea is half-closed, having a small entrance only at the southern end, which means (a) that new species can’t quickly enter and (b) that current species have nowhere to escape up north. Long story short, the sea life can die off. But in terms of novel and more tropical species, yes, they are already invading the sea through large cargo ships, which bring them within their ballast waters. Sharks might come, but they are not as dangerous to people as one would think after watching Hollywood movies.

So there you have it.