Hotter seas, vanishing kelp, booming octopus: How Europe's marine life is changing

An octopus at Porthkerris reef, off Cornwall in southwestern England (Reuters) With European waters recording their hottest summer on record, rising ocean temperatures are affecting marine life across the continent, damaging habitats and forcing several species into new waters.According to a Reuters analysis, European waters averaged 21.6°C between June and August, the highest summer average in a 45-year record dating back to 1982.The warming has been particularly pronounced in the Bay of Biscay, a part of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean along the western coasts of France and northern Spain, where average sea temperatures reached 21.4°C during the summer, more than 2.4°C above the 1991-2020 average.The region also recorded 186 marine heatwave days by the end of August, highlighting the prolonged nature of the unusually warm conditions.The prolonged warming is also affecting marine habitats. Along the coast of Asturias in northern Spain, large brown kelp forests have declined sharply, with marine ecologist Jose Manuel Rico Ordas estimating that around 95 percent of the kelp stands sampled since 2010 have disappeared, according to Reuters.The loss of kelp is significant because the u...