Researchers may have found another telltale sign that the strengthening El Niño will be Godzilla-like.
On an Aug. 15 trip, sea lion biologist Jeff Harris filmed tens of thousands of tiny red crabs in the ocean at Point Bennett off San Miguel Island in Santa Barbara County. As he sat in a raft and paddled through the warm water, Harris shot video of the creatures bobbing in kelp and interacting with a northern fur seal.
More surprising, however, was that these types of crustaceans, pelagic red crabs or pleuroncodes planipes, are usually found in Mexico’s warm waters, said Harris, who works for the National Marine Mammal Laboratory.
But as the sea temperatures increase, the crabs will follow the pockets of warm water and move north.
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