tobias - 11-28-2018 at 07:41 AM
I keep hearing reports that El Niño is on its way.
How does this affect life in Baja?
How is the fishing?
Does it get extra windy?
Have you lived through an El Niño year down here?
shari - 11-28-2018 at 09:06 AM
El Nino really affects our village as we are in the transition zone where we still have ocean temps cool enough to support one of the very few wild
abalone stocks in the world due to the kelp beds which have all but disappeared after the last El Nino.
Warmer than usual water kills off all the kelp which abalone require and our village is economically dependent on this product. The abalone stocks are
just starting to recover from the last El Nino and production has been waaaaay down the last few years translating into a serious tightening of belts
in the village. Fisherman who work abalone are accustomed to earning a good wage and they cant fish anything else...they can either work lobster or
abalone but not both. So families are really feeling the pinch of a big income decrease.
Me I love the warmer water for swimming etc but it does seem to intensify the hurricanes too and of course increase air temps.
BajaBlanca - 11-28-2018 at 03:45 PM
The one el niño year I can remember was REALLY hot, precisely because the ocean was so warm. La Bocana, which is only 1 1/2 hours south of Shari
and Bahia Asuncion, tends to be coldish all year long. Since I love cooler weather, I hated the heat and suffered bigtime!
Interesting how cooperatives work differently, ours put all the fishermen working on lobstering since there was no abalone. Everyone gets less but
everyone gets something and they can fish all they want to add pesitos to their salary.
tobias - 11-29-2018 at 08:10 AM
Thanks for the info! Had not even thought about things like kelp beds.
The event is supposed to form in the next few months and there are some pretty alarmist predictions of extreme weather.
I live in a ski resort and people here are really hoping for a lot of snow as last year was brutally dry.
I know in the past it has given us huge storms with very wet snow.
AKgringo - 11-29-2018 at 08:34 AM
Shari and Blanca, it is not just a local abalone problem. All the way up the northern California coast the population has crashed to the point where
the 2018 season was cancelled!
David K - 11-29-2018 at 12:18 PM
The El Niño of 1997 is well documented in Graham's second book, Journey with a Baja Burro. Rain, rain, and more rain!
tobias - 12-6-2018 at 08:07 AM
Looks like its on its way ....
https://www.mlive.com/weather/2018/12/ocean-waters-warming-r...