The effects of The Blob on the zooplankton and upper trophic levels of the Northern
California Current off Oregon
William T. Peterson1, Jennifer Fisher2, Jay Peterson2 and Tracy Shaw2
1
NOAA–Fisheries, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Newport Field Station, Newport, OR, USA
E-mail: bill.peterson@noaa.gov
2
Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA
The Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and the northern California current (NCC) became anomalously
warm in fall/winter 2013 due to lack of deep mixing in the GOA. Waters continued to warm
through summer of 2014 giving rise to a pool of anomalously warm pool across the North Pacific
that has now come to be called “The Blob”. Anomalies exceeded 4.5°C -- a historical record. In
the NCC, weather conditions associated with The Blob resulted in the shortest upwelling season
on record. By winter 2014, The Blob had produced a positive PDO pattern with the most positive
PDO values ever recorded for winter months (+ 2.51 in December 2014 and 2.45 in January
2015). The zooplankton species sampled in the NCC indicate that The Blob water was from an
offshore and southerly source, illustrated by anomalously high numbers of tropical copepod
species. Eight copepod species were new records for shelf waters off Newport OR (e.g. Acartia
negligens, Clausocalanus furcatus, C. farranni and Subeucalanus crassus. Other species which
occur only very rarely include Centropages bradyii, Eucalanus hyalinus and Rhincalanus
nasutus). An additional 9 copepod species, new to Oregon, are as yet unidentified. With respect
to fishes, eggs of both sardines and anchovies occurred in our net tows off Newport in February
and March 2015, a “first” for the Oregon coast (these two species usually spawn off southern
California in winter). Also noteworthy are large numbers of pomfret, pompano and market squid
throughout the NCC and the eastern GOA.