The 2026 "Niño Godzilla": A Hemispheric Crisis Threatening Dolphins
By Ángel Herrera Ulloa, PhD
Dr. Angel Herrera is the Director of the International Marine Mammal Project’s (IMMP’s) Dolphin Safe (DS) Tuna Monitoring Program in Latin America. As a representative of Earth Island Institute since 1993, his DS monitoring work spans countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panamá, Peru, and Uruguay. He has authored more than 15 scientific articles and co-authored two books.
The 2026 El Niño is accelerating with unprecedented speed, leading scientists to preliminarily label it a potential "Super El Niño" or "Niño Godzilla." This rapid transition is already triggering alarming climatic anomalies across the entire Pacific coast—from the U.S. West Coast to the tip of South America. For California’s marine mammals, particularly dolphins, this historic warming represents an existential threat, but the crisis is tragically mirrored across the eastern Pacific.
California, Early Instability and Marine Collapse:
While the most destructive effects of El Niño typically hit California in winter, NOAA already reports unusual atmospheric instability and increased Sumer humidity in the Northeast Pacific. These patterns warn of potential winter storms rivaling the catastrophic floods of 1997.
Simultaneously, California’s marine ecosystem is collapsing. Record-breaking ocean warmth suppresses nutrient-rich upwelling, starving dolphins and sea lions of their forage fish prey. Warmer waters also supercharge toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs), producing domoic acid that moves directly up the food chain, triggering mass strandings of marine life poisoned by the HABs. The Dungeness crab and salmon fisheries face a potential repeat of the 2015-16 crisis, when 71% of crab boats ceased operations — a devastating blow to coastal communities and marine life alike.
Peru, Warm-Water Invasion and Wildlife Disorientation:
South of the equator, Peru is suffering an unprecedented "absent winter." SENAMHI reports air and sea temperatures far above normal for July, driven by a bizarre invasion of warm waters pushing from the north. This biological invasion is heavily disorienting local and marine fauna, causing mass starvation among guano birds like pelicans as anchovies flee southward. Critically, predictive models do not rule out this event escalating to an "Extraordinary" magnitude—matching and possibly exceeding the devastating El Niños of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998.
Ecuador, Extreme Marine Warming and Early Alerts:
In Ecuador, Comité Nacional ERFEN and INOCAR detected extreme thermal anomalies of up to +3.6° F (+2°C) extending to depths of 984 feet (300 meters) in the equatorial Pacific. This warming is devastating artisanal fisheries, altering fishing cycles as cold-water species vanish, and tropical species move closer to shore. The gravity of the situation forced the National Risk Management Secretariat to declare an early Yellow Alert across 17 provinces, preparing for imminent overflows and mass movements projected for year-end.
Costa Rica, A Bimodal Nightmare:
Costa Rica’s National Meteorological Institute (IMN) confirmed a rapid consolidation of El Niño in July. The country is experiencing a bizarre bimodal behavior: while the Pacific slope and Central Valley suffer a crippling rain deficit of up to 40%, exacerbating thermal stress and forcing the state electricity company to burn dirty bunker fuel, other regions paradoxically report simultaneous, atypical floods under the influence of Niño 3 warming.
Chile, Destructive Rains on Dried Soil:
The sheer intensity of this "Super El Niño" is pushing massive frontal systems toward central-northern Chile, displacing rain into areas unaccustomed to such volumes. Extraordinary events saw up to 4 inches (100 mm) of rain falling in just hours. Striking hardened soils left by a historic megadrought, the water could not be absorbed, unleashing severe flash floods and mudslides — climatic crises with dynamics not seen in nearly 30 years.
A Unified Call to Action:
The 2026 "Niño Godzilla" is a stark reminder that our oceans have no borders. The dolphins struggling off California, the starving seabirds in Peru, and the flooded communities in Chile are all victims of the same amplified climate cycle.
As global warming heats our baseline ocean temperatures, these natural oscillations become increasingly violent.
We must act decisively. Support organizations like the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, on the frontlines responding to strandings and advocating for sustainable fisheries. Reduce your carbon footprint, choose sustainably sourced seafood, and demand international climate policies addressing ocean warming. The time to protect our marine ecosystems is now-before this Pacific-wide crisis reaches its devastating peak.
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The International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute is working all over the world to protect whales, dolphins, and their ocean hábitat. We hope you will join us in supporting whales and dolphins, seeking to end entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes, opposing captivity for whales and dolphins, and moving to end whaling and dolphin hunts. Can you help with a donation today? Thank you for your support for the dolphins and whales.
