Record-Breaking Temperatures Threaten Marine Life in the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea, a cradle of life and civilizations, is experiencing an unprecedented rise in temperatures. Record-high temperatures have been recorded for the second consecutive year.
This worsening phenomenon, a clear indicator of ongoing climate change, threatens the delicate ecological balance of this sea and casts a shadow over the future of marine life. Fish and marine plants are particularly at risk, while the proliferation of invasive species is intensifying in a region severely affected by the impacts of global warming.
According to Justino Martínez, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, the Mediterranean’s daily average surface temperature reached 28.67 degrees Celsius on August 11th, a value close to the record of 28.71 degrees recorded on July 24th, 2023. He added that “since 2022, surface temperatures have been rising unusually and for an extended period, even considering climate change.”
The Mediterranean has experienced, over two consecutive summers, record temperatures higher than those recorded during the exceptional heatwave of summer 2003, when the daily average water surface temperature reached 28.25 degrees Celsius, a previous record that lasted twenty years. Locally, temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius have been recorded on the water surface since early August off the coasts of Monaco, Corsica, and Valencia.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has classified the Mediterranean region, which has been hit in recent years by heatwaves and extensive wildfires, as a “hotspot” of climate change.
