BOILING POINT

Experts warn massive increase in temperatures could kill off marine life | Birds, fish & kelp vital for planet's survival threatened by 'hot as bath' sea water

- DAN VEVERS

DEVASTATING ocean heat has surged "off the charts" and raised the threat of a marine life catastrophe.

One concerned Scots scientist told of his fears overs "crazy" temperatures as a global sea record was smashed this week.

Experts said the world's waters were facing their most profound changes "in millennia" as daily global sea surface temperature beat a 2016 record by rising to 20.96C, according to the EU's climate change service Copernicus.

Hotter seas off the Scottish coast threaten to devastate the country's vital kelp forests and reefs along with seabirds, and cod and haddock stocks.

Waters in some parts of the world, like Florida in the US, are now like "jumping into a bath", scientists said.

Prof Mike Burrows, of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, told the Record: "2022 was a warm year there have been warm years prior to that but 2023 is just quite literally off the charts, which is not something I've ever seen.

"I've been looking at temperature changes over the last 30 years or more. We're in uncharted territory which is very, very worrying."

In the US, Dr Kathryn Lesneski, who is monitoring a heatwave in the Gulf of Mexico, said: "The water feels like a bath when you jump in. There is widespread coral bleaching at shallow reefs in Florida and many corals have already died.

In 2021, extreme heat and drought killed over a billion sea creatures in the waters around the US and Canada alone. The record ocean temperatures come as countries in South America are also experiencing an "unbelievable" heatwave on land, bringing temperatures near 40C during their winter.

Scientists have ruled the brutal heat in Europe, the US and Asia last month was almost certainly because of manmade climate change.