A fundamental challenge

The Blob is here.

No, not the famous 1950’s sci-fi movie starring a young Steve McQueen, but an area of abnormally warm water off the Pacific Coast. This concentration of warm water was first called “the blob” in 2014.

Much has yet to be learned of the phenomenon.

Scientists, however, are convinced that it may be a symptom or even the cause of some very serious changes in the marine environment.

Whales are starving, starfish are dying in unusual numbers as are some seabirds, and krill, a fundamental part of the food chain, are declining.

The blob is massive, stretching two thousand miles from...