Ocean warming trends: more than meets the eye?
Is global warming the answer to the record levels of temperatures reached by the world’s oceans? The average world-wide water temperature has reached a record of 62.6 degrees according to world weather records kept by the National Climatic Data Center. Why?
Miami and Fort Lauderdale beaches are a magnet and the sun and fun centers for tourists and locals alike. During the ‘season’ they arrive on the shore and stake out their territory on our beaches and swim in our waters.
Lately, vacation habits have confirmed what we already know. Budgetary restraints have brought tens, if not hundreds of millions to the world’s beaches for a quick and easy ‘stay-cation’. Hotels on the shores have suffered because day trips have dominated this flow of ‘stay-cationers’
Without a place to stay, they have probably been relieving themselves in the oceans of the world en masse thus, to an extent, raising the temperature of the waters.
Despite pleas to ‘hold their water’ bathers are doing what they have done in pools forever. Manatees are the only mammals that have not complained due to their proclivity for warm water.
Whale squeaks may have finally been deciphered as “We don’t swim in your toilet, don’t pee in our ocean”.