SST anomalies show the widespread effect of El Niño events in 1983, 1992, 1997‒1998, and the prolonged effect of the marine heat wave in 2014‒2016 related to The Blob and the 2015‒2016 ENSO event. [...] After the period of high anomalies in 2014‒2016 that in many areas resulted in all-time highest SST and lowest chl-a and minima in the frequency of surface fronts, the conditions in 18 Sydeman et al. [...] Chl-a values in 2017 and in the first half of 2018 were very close to normal in the coastal areas and slightly below the long-term means in the transitional areas. [...] The smallest individual biomass and lowest mean lengths coincided with periods when waters of The Blob abutted the coast, and when the effects of the 2015‒2016 El Niño manifested most strongly in the northern California Current. [...] The return of births to the long-term average in 2017 indicates that the lower number of births in 2015 and 2016 were not simply the result of fewer reproductive females in the population but that due to the poor foraging conditions during the gestation period, when fewer reproductive females were able to energetically support pregnancies.
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- 44
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- Canada
