THE DEMISE OF EL NINO 97/98
by David Day. Santa Cruz, Galapagos, 29th May 1998
As I write this, the night time temperature on Santa Cruz has gone up again! Finally after many months we had it less hot, with the last few nights the temperatures dropping to 24-25C, but last night it was up at 27C again, these temperatures no doubt reflecting sea temperatures, which you can get from Biomar.
I have been questioning all the Galapagos dive guides since this El Niño kicked in in April last year, and the main common feature of this super El Niño has been the total lack of ANY upwelling cooler water in ANY part of the Archipelago. Some of the guides had actively searched for cooler water (looking for the missing fish life) up to 150ft. deep, where very occasionally there was a slight hint of a thermocline in deeper water!As suddenly as it started, it seems to be ending, at least for Galapagos. People on a dive trip that ended the13th May had not encountered thermoclines, even at 150ft, yet a group that finished on the 15th had found 68F water at Cabo Marshall on NE Isabela, and at Gordon Rocks. Peter Glynn and Josh Feingold's team encountered a strong thermocline at 12 metres off Point Cormorant on the15th May, and the local dive groups found cold water at Gordon Rocks and off the east coast of North Seymour at that time.
Meanwhile on land, streams that were almost continually running in the highlands of Santa Cruz during the first part of May, have dried up in the past week.
This El Niño has been very different in it's timing compared with the last 'Super El Niño' of 1992/3, as well as with it's effect on the flora and fauna. More about that later, just to say that Josh Feingold and Peter Glynn in their recent survey, found that most of the bleached coral they saw was still alive, and with the advent of upwellings, some of them were already.
As I finish this report at 11.30 on the 30th May, there has been a short shower of heavy rain. Has El Niño really left us?!