SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration returned to San Diego after spending the past four months studying marine population trends.
Chief Scientist Jeff Moore packed up after spending the last four months on the Bold Horizon, leading a team of a dozen scientists in a survey studying species of whales, dolphins and seabirds.
It’s a study that happens every five years.
This survey covered areas from the California-Mexico border to the Washington-Canada border.
“Whether these populations are growing or declining, where they’re occurring in the ecosystem, and how that’s changing," Moore replied when asked about the nature of the study.
The NOAA team collected data in various ways.
He says, “ We’re collecting 5 different types of data: drones, acoustics surveys, genetics sampling, and more. It takes time to bring crews together and organize them.”
While it will take a while for the team to put the data together in a report, preliminary info shows a shift in where certain species were found.
Moore says, “I could tell you from the raw data, we’re seeing a lot of northward northern shifts in the distribution of certain species. Our waters are warming, the cooler productive parts of our ecosystem are going farther north, we’re seeing that immediately by seeing where these predator species are shifting as well.”
Information that will be analyzed for years to come. He adds, “We essentially are generating the information in those textbooks.”
