Marine Heatwaves 101

Perspectives | Jun 5, 2025

Learn about what marine heatwaves are and how they can disrupt coastal ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.

A hot sun over the water.

A hot looking day on the water.
Men fishing off a dock at sunset.

The Gulf of Maine has been warming so fast that everything looks like a heatwave, we’re at a point where temperatures are routinely far outside the conditions of the past, and groups are searching for new ways to separate extreme temperatures from the new normal.

Adam Kemberling Quantitative Research Associate

Hot looking day on the water.
A boat on the water.

In the ocean, animals can’t hop on Facebook Marketplace to find themselves a used air conditioner, they have to find other ways to respond.

Adam Kemberling Quantitative Research Associate
Adam Kemberling Quantitative Research Associate

It’s hard to know which aspect of the temperature changes were the thing that an animal cared about. Was it the intensity, duration, or some other factor of a heatwave that caused a response? It’s difficult to know conclusively.

Our economies are closely tied to the natural environment, and these extreme events are shocks to the system. There’s a variety of ways those shocks manifest in markets and our society more broadly.

Kanae Tokunaga, Ph.D. Senior Scientist
Birds and seals cooling off.

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