Summary
El Niño, which officially arrived in June 2026 and is expected to strengthen, is significantly altering marine life in the equatorial Pacific, leading to reduced chlorophyll-a concentrations and impacting the marine food web. This phenomenon suppresses the upwelling of nutrient-rich water, causing declines in phytoplankton and subsequently affecting zooplankton, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, as observed by NASA's PACE satellite.