January 27, 2025 — Heavy smoke, ash and debris from Southern California’s raging wildfires blowing and drifting far offshore are creating a toxic threat to marine life, scientists are warning.
Crew members aboard a NOAA research vessel reported conditions ranging from yellow-colored skies as far as 100 miles offshore to impenetrable smoke that required deck workers to don masks and goggles.
NOAA’s Noelle Bowlin, director of the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program, who has been in daily contact with the vessel, said crew members reported “giant pieces of confetti everywhere” on the ocean surface and white-colored plankton nets used for research turning “completely black and coated in tons of soot and ash and burned material.”