Heat Attacks In North America, Slaughter Shells, Snails, And Other Marine Animals

Many shells died on the beach, as if they had been cooked by the heat. (photo: instagram)

JAKARTA - More than a billion marine animals living along the coast of the Pacific Ocean may have died during an unprecedented heatwave attack in the Northwest US.

Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, told CBC on Monday July 5 that he was "shocked" by the stench of carrion and the sight of tens of thousands of dead clams, snails, mussels and starfish off a Vancouver beach in late June.

Harley says that more than 1 billion aquatic creatures may have perished along the coast of the Salish Sea. This area includes western British Columbia and the state of Washington.

"Scallops on the beach are in some ways like a toddler left in a car on a hot day," Harley told CBC.

"They are stuck there until the mother returns, or in this case, the tide returns and there is little they can do. They are under the influence of the environment. On Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, during the summer, the waves get very hot. so the clams cannot survive,” added Harley.

"Ultimately, we won't be able to keep the filter feeder population on this coastline anywhere near the levels we're used to," said Harley. "If we don't like it, then we need to work harder to reduce emissions and take other actions to reduce the impact of climate change."

The actual death toll could be much higher, as the heatwave extends far beyond the Salish Sea. There have been reports of mussels being found "cooked" on beaches throughout the region, and low tide helped facilitate the slaughter.

The Oyster Bay Pest Company mussel farm shared an image to social media of mussels being cooked on one of its shell beds on Washington's Hood Canal last week.

"They (scallops etc) looked like they were freshly cooked, like they were ready to eat," the company told The Daily Mail. "It's too early to say (how many), we will have to wait for the next series of low tides."

The human toll has also been devastating. This heatwave is responsible for hundreds of deaths in the region, according to a paper published Monday by the medical journal BMJ. Experts expect more potentially deadly heat waves to emerge in the future as the effects of climate change continue unabated.

Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees F (37 degrees Celsius) across the Northwest late last month, with several cities in the region hitting all-time highs, including Portland, Oregon hitting a record 116 degrees.

Both Oregon and Washington peaked at 118 degrees (47 degrees Celsius), matching the state record for Washington and dropping one degree below the high for Oregon. A scorching heat of 121 degrees F (49.5 degrees Celsius) was also recorded in Lytton, British Columbia. This is the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canadian history.