Approximately 71% of Earth’s surface is covered by ocean. This is water containing high concentrations of salt that is not viable for human consumption. So why should we care?

 

Since the ocean makes up such a vast portion of Earth, it has large impacts on weather, temperature, and food supply.

 

Weather: El Niño and La Niña are special weather patterns that occur in the Pacific Ocean. These occur when the trade winds shift, changing the weather patterns all over the Pacific and the countries bordering it. During one of these events, the western coast of the Americas can face anything from extreme heat waves with increased water temperature, to longer and more dramatic rainy seasons.

 

Temperature: The worlds ocean serves as a large reservoir for carbon and solar radiation. This means that a lot of heat gets trapped in the oceans. With help from the trade winds and the moon, currents bring this warmer water to the poles and then circulates the cooler waters back towards the equator. This consistent flow moderate’s temperatures and weather patterns throughout the year.

 

Food Supply: Fish and other marine life provides a large percentage of food for humans and livestock. Fish can provide vitamins and protein that can be positive for human health. It also is widely used for animal feed for the same reasons, and the widespread accessibility. There is a large fishing industry tailored to supply fish for all different reasons, but these companies are feeling the effects of climate change.

 

This year, 2023, an El Niño is starting to affect the west coast of the Americas. In Chile I saw many different effects of the El Niño all over the country. One of the major impacts was the rising ocean temperatures. While climate change impacts the temperature of the ocean, the shift in the trade winds slows the movement of cooler water from the Arctic and the process of uplift. During a typical season, cold water from the Arctic would be pushed towards shore. This is what causes the Pacific Ocean to always be so chilly. Another benefit of cold water is its ability to hold higher concentration of nutrients. All along the Chilean coast the warmer waters are negatively affecting the marine life with less nutrients and more acidity.

 

In Iquique we visited the Universidad Arturo Prat Department of Agriculture in the Desert (shown in pictures below) where they were studying this issue of ocean acidification due to warming temperatures. Here they took water from the ocean and inserted all of the missing nutrients into an artificial environment. From here the typical marine food chain was recreated, with phytoplankton, fish, and mollusks. Creating the artificial environment allowed them to not only preserve some of the dying marine life from the area, but also run tests to see how long these animals could survive in the extreme conditions caused by warming waters. This is a relatively new project so not a lot of information has been produced yet, but I expected that many important discoveries will come from this.

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

(1) An image of the sign representing the University that we visited

(2) An image showing the aquaponics tanks where the artificial marine life is created and the different portions of the food chain

(3) An image of some of the fish that are part of the artificial marine ecosystem

​

​

​

​

​

 

Another major issue occurring along the coast of Chile is the disappearance of marine life. As the temperatures are rising in the ocean, the marine animals that are able to migrate are moving towards cooler water. This means moving south or to deeper waters farther out from shore. Other species are simply dying off because they cannot survive the warmer, more acidic water. All around the harbor that Iquique is settled on, local fisherman report that barnacles and oysters used to grow all over ships hulls and dock posts. Now there are none to be found. Anchovies, which are a common fish found near Iquique have now moved out to sea. Artisan fisherman are now struggling to harvest these fish, as well as other species of fish. Over the years the amount of artisanal fisherman has decreased significantly because these people are no longer able to support themselves off of the number of fish that they were bringing in.

 

The local fishermen are also struggling because of imposing fishing companies. In Iquique and other portions of Chile the navy is in charge of creating and enforcing fishing regulations, including where these large-scale fishing companies can fish. Even though all of these companies claim to follow the policies, different work-arounds have been discovered in order to get more fish. This includes hiring artisanal fishermen to fish in areas that are only for small, local boats, and selling their catches to the company, rather than supplying the local fishing industry.