UC Santa Cruz biologist Baldo Marinovic says sea surface temperatures are the coldest they have been since the late 1980s. The cooling trend has led to a resurgence of krill, the microscopic creatures that are a major food source for whales, birds and many species of seals, and copepods, tiny crustaceans that supplement the diets of marine mammals.
Marinovic and other researchers say it is too soon to know whether the seasonal abundance is a sign of improving climate conditions or a one-year anomaly.
