(CNN)As many as one million seabirds died at sea inless than 12 monthsin one of the largest mass die-offs in recorded history — and researchers say warm ocean waters are to blame.
The birds, a fish-eating species called the common murre, were severely emaciated and appeared to have died of starvation between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016,washing up along North America’s west coast, from California to Alaska.
Now, scientists say they know what caused it:a huge section of warm ocean water in the northeast Pacific Ocean dubbed “the Blob.”
A years-long severe marine heat wave first began in 2013, and intensified during the summer of 2015 due to a powerful weather phenomenon called El Nino, which lasted through 2016.
The heat wave created the Blob — a 1,000-mile (1,600…
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Exposing the Big Game 