Impact on Wildlife

The warm waters El Niño brings as well as the shifts in winds interrupt the upwelling of cold water that is nutrients rich. Fish from tropical waters may move northward, while local species may move to deeper, cooler waters, or just migrate northward in search for nutrition. Displaced fish populations can even take up to two years to recover after a strong El Niño event.

Primary production from up-welling is also crucial to higher food chain organisms. Reduced food can affect growth and reproduction of resident birds and fish (especially bottom fish). Moreover, on the West coast of the Southern America a lot of sea lions, seals and other animals that feed on fish may die of famine. One prominent example is the year 1982, when as a result of the sea level rise during, sea birds abandoned their young and flew out far to the ocean in a desperate search for food. Furthermore, along the coast of Peru during that same time period, 25 percent of the adult fur seal and sea lion populations starved to death.

http://www.paulgodfrey.co.uk/gallery4lapaz2frameset1.html

Sea Lions

http://can-do.com/uci/lessons98/sea-lions.jpg

Californian Gull

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i0530id.html

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