Record warm seas help to bring extraordinary species to UK waters

The British seas have made the hottest start to the year since the start of the registrations and helped to make some dramatic changes in sea life and fishing communities.

The BBC analysis of temporary Met Office data was higher than 0.2C in seven months until the end of July.

This may not come too much, but Britain’s seas are now much warmer, even a few decades ago, a trend directed by the burning of fossil fuels of humanity.

This contributes to major changes in the British marine ecosystems, some new species enter our seas, and others are struggling to deal with warmth.

Scientists and amateur natural scientists observed a remarkable range of usually not common in the UK waters, including octopus, blue -fins tuna and lilac Stinger jellyfish.

The abundance of these creatures may be affected by natural cycles and fishing practices, but many researchers point to the heating seas as an important part of their rise.

Plymouth Naval Biology Association is a senior research assistant. “Things like jellyfish like octopus … They are things you expect to respond quickly to climate change.” He said.

“A little like the canary in the coal mine – very unusual changes that we have seen in the last few years show an ecosystem under the flux.”

A 19 -year -old sharp lantern, Harry Polkinghorne, told how he regularly saw a blue -fins tuna, including big fish schools in crazy feeding madness.

“It’s like watching a washing machine in water,” he said. “You can only see a lot of white water and then tuna and tuna jump.”

Dr Stewart said that the number of blue -fins tuna was built for a number of reasons, including warmer waters and better management of population in South West England in the last decade.

Heather Hamilton, who snorled his father David almost every week on the coast of Cornwall, swung from large Salps flowers, a kind of jellyfish.

They are rare in the UK, but Hamiltons have seen more than these creatures for the last few years.

“You see that these big chains shine a little like fairy lights,” he said.

“He just felt something that I have never seen before.”

However, when excessive heat is combined with excessive hunting, it pushes some of the UK’s cold-stimulated species, such as COD and Wolf-Fish, to their borders.

“We see that these types of cool water that move to the north in general have changed.” Dr Stewart said. He said.

Sea heat wave conditions – long periods of unusual sea surface temperatures – found in some parts of the UK almost all year.

Some exceptional marine temperatures have also been identified by the measurement floats on the coast of the UK, known as Wavenet and operated by the environment, fishing and aquaculture menevi (CEFAS).

And the record of the record 2025 comes after very high sea temperatures in 2023 and 2024.

Met Office says that since the end of June 2024, its data is temporary and will be finalized in the coming months, but this will usually result in very small changes.

“It was warmer throughout the year than we saw on average [for the UK’s seas]Cef Cafas said Climate Change Chief Advisor Prof John Pinnegar.

“[The seas] It has been warming up for more than a century and now we see that heat waves are coming now, ”he added.

“In the past, what was a very rare phenomenon is now becoming very, very common.”

Like the heat waves on the land, sea temperatures are affected by natural variability and short -term weather. Low windy open, sunny sky – as in the beginning of July in England – can heat the sea surface faster.

However, the world oceans received about 90% of the excess temperature of the world from humanity’s planetary -heated gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.

This makes sea heat waves more likely and more dense.

Dr Caroline Rowland, President of Ocean, Cryosphere and Climate Change in the Met office, said, “The main contribution to the sea heat waves around England, President of the Ocean, Cryosphere and Climate Change.

“We estimate that these events will be more frequent and intense in the future due to climate change.

With less cooling sea breeze, this warmer waters can strengthen black heat waves and also have the potential to bring heavier rainfall.

Hot seas can also absorb less than the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which may mean that our planet warms faster.

The sea temperature already causes difficulties in fishing communities.

Ben Cooper has been a fisherman in Whitstable on the northern city coast since 1997, and has been largely relying on a joint Whelk, a kind of sea snail.

However, the Wheel is a type of cold water, and in 2022, a sea heat wave triggered the mass death of these snails in Thames Haliç.

“Almost 75% of our earnings pass with Wheels, so you get it and suddenly you fight.”

Before the last heat wave, Whelks began to heal, but the losses forced him to take back his job, he said.

Mr. Cooper remembered fishing trips with his father in the 1980s. They would trust COD at that time.

“We lost COD because the sea was very warmed. They went even north,” he said.

The definitive distribution of sea species varies from year to year, but researchers expect England to continue to change as people continue to heat the world.

Dr Pinnegar, “Fishermen may have to change the targeted species in the long run and they caught,” he said.

“And as consumers, we may have to change the species we eat.”

Additional Reports by Becky Dale and Miho Tanaka