The Northeast Pacific heat wave, known as “the Blob,” spanned the ocean ecosystem from California to the Gulf of Alaska in late 2014 to 2016. However, the magnitude and speed of the die-off during this heat wave was particularly alarming to Drummond and her team. Brie Drummond/USFWS Before the 2014–2016 Northeast Pacific marine heat wave, a common murre census plot at the Semidi Islands, Alaska, had 1,890 birds (left). Before the start of the 2014 heat wave, Alaska’s murre population made up 25% of the world’s population of the seabird species. Half of the data collected from organisms such as phytoplankton and even homeothermic top predators presented “neutral” responses to the heat wave.

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Persons: Brie Drummond, murres, Drummond, ”, we’ll, ” Nora Rojek, ” Drummond, Falk Huettmann, Huettmann, ” Huettmann Organizations: CNN, Northern, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife, University of Alaska Locations: California, Gulf, Alaska, Bering, Islands, Pacific, New York City, Fairbanks, Japan, Russia, King