LONDON: Central and Northern California are seeing too many pink slugs in their waters according to the researchers. The researchers are blaming global warming for the sudden population explosion of these pink sea slugs.
Global warming is increasing the temperatures of the ocean waters around the world. Warming of oceans is adversely affecting a lot of marine creatures. However, some of them are benefiting from it. One such species is the rare pink sea slug, called Hopkins’ Rose nudibranch.
The Hopkins’ Rose nudibranch (Okenia rosacea) is common to Southern California but found only sporadically in Central California and rarely north of San Francisco. However researchers from UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, the Bodega Marine Laboratory and the California Academy of Sciences have reported large number of these sea slugs in tide pools from San Luis Obispo to Humboldt counties, in the past few weeks. These are the highest numbers and the northernmost records of this species seen since the strong El Ninos of 1998 and 1983.
The flooding of warmer water in Northern California has made the northern coast of California a perfect breeding ground for a massive population explosion for a particular species of rosy red sea snails.
