06/15/2026
🌊 Repost from Los Angeles Times
At a time of sea level rise, ocean acidification, record-breaking marine heat waves and the arrival of a particularly strong El Niño, a little-known but invaluable marine ecosystem monitoring program off the Southern California coast has never been more essential.
The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations is the world’s oldest and longest-running effort of its kind. Every season for more than three-quarters of a century, researchers have sailed hundreds of miles off the Golden State's coast and collected a dizzying array of zooplankton, microscopic plant matter, larvae and all manner of fish.
Like taking a pulse of the ocean at particular moments in time, generations of scientists have meticulously documented water temperature, salinity, acidity, oxygen levels and dozens of other data points that have become the gold standard for understanding the ocean and how it’s changing.
Read more about how CalCOFI helped shape our modern understanding of El Niño at the link in bio.
📷 NOAA Fisheries Scripps Instn. of Oceanography and James Wilkinson at
