Mass Destruction Of Sea Creatures Spotted in Chile's Pacific Beaches

Dead sea animals such as sardines, salmon, whales, cuttlefish, squids and other more sea creatures are piling up the Chile's Pacific beaches these recent months. The scientists are trying to analyze the reason why.

Chile is known for its beautiful beaches. It is the world's second-largest producer of the fish next to Norway. On the other hand, the beaches are unsightly as of today because of the dead animals. There were about 8,000 tons of sardines, 300 whales and about 12 percent of the country' salmon catch were seen dead in the Chile coast, according to Smithsonian.

Surge in algae causes wave of dead sea creatures to hit Chile's beaches https://t.co/RcEr9dYW54

— Becky Dempsey (@GreenBizBecky) May 4, 2016

Some experts believe that El Nino phenomenon would likely be the cause of the killing of sea creatures. The warm water carried on by the phenomenon put strain coral reefs near Hawaii. Some Chilean authorities also reproached "red tide" of algae and banned fishing in the affected areas. This stopped thousands of fishermen out of work.

Jorge Navarro, a researcher at the marine institute IDEAL said that they have red tide every year in Southern Chile, but this time it reached further north. This affected the bivalve population such as clams.

Thousands of cuttlefish have also been spotted dead in shores of Santa Maria Island off the center of Chile's long coast. Likewise, thousands of squids were also seen dead.

Meanwhile, scientists said that the current El Nino is subsiding. This causes the sea surface to cool. This mass destruction of sea life has been a wake-up call.

Valera Montes, a fishermen specialist at Chilean branch of the World Wildlife Fund said that Chile still lacks information about the sea. He further said that they have to invest in oceanographic studies, so that they can predict certain events and better prepare for climate change, according to Yahoo.