Global oceans break June temperature record with fears they’re headed into ‘uncharted territory’

ByLaura Paddison

The Pacific Ocean at Windansea Beach on ...


The planet’s oceans are at unprecedented temperatures for this time of year, breaking the all-time June record, according to new data, with alarming implications for global weather and marine life.

On June 21, average global sea surface temperatures reached 69.5 degrees Fahrenheit (20.86 Celsius), edging above the June record last set in 2024, according to data from Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which combines measurements from satellites, ships and buoys.

The record was echoed in another data set. Data from the Copernicus Marine Service, implemented by the non-profit Mercator Ocean International, found sea temperatures hit 69.38 Fahrenheit (21 Celsius) on June 21, beating the previous record last set in 2024 by 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit.

The abnormal heat has been driven by the onset of El Niño, a natural climate pattern characterized by unusually warm waters along the equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño has only just started but it may intensify into one of the strongest in decades.

Layered underneath that is the human-driven climate crisis, which is also driving up temperatures. For decades, oceans have acted as the planet’s main heat sink, absorbing 90% of the excess heat produced by humans burning fossil fuels.

“Rising sea surface temperatures are therefore not unexpected,” said Michael Meredith, an ocean scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. “But the pace of warming we are now seeing is alarming.”

It’s not yet clear whether this unprecedented June heat is temporary or a sign of things to come, but experts are expressing concern.

“Current conditions could indicate the beginning of a new phase, leading, once more, to uncharted territory,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus Climate Change Service. “With ocean temperatures at these levels and El Niño on the horizon, we are likely to see more temperature records fall in the coming months.”

What happens in the oceans has huge implications for global weather patterns. Hotter oceans keep the air warmer, fueling heat waves; energize storms making them fiercer; and increase evaporation, boosting the chances of extreme rainfall and flooding.

Ocean heat can also lead to the mass bleaching of coral reefs, the death of other marine life and increased sea level rise.

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Deadly Pacific (Full Episode) | Drain the Oceans

The UN Ocean Conference: an important step for humanity in motion

The first-ever United Nations summit on oceans took place in June. It represents a major turning point in mobilising the international community to act to protect marine life, especially in the high seas.

Immensity, ignorance and delusion

When you look at the sea, you see waves, light effects and colour. You are captivated by the enormousness of the ocean: 70.8% of our planet’s surface is covered by ocean. Yet below this surface there is an extraordinary volume which has an average depth of 3.7 kilometres.



The bio-habitable volume of the ocean is 300 times greater than that of terrestrial habitats.

Knowledge of the ocean still remains incomplete. We know more about lunar landscape than we do about the ocean bed. We think that 91% of oceanic life remains to be discovered. We have for a long time believed, or have wanted to believe that the effects of human activity would be diluted in the immensity of the marine environment.



Waking up

Collective awakening is slow. Gradually, as catastrophies follow one after another, humanity is becoming aware of the effects of its unconsciousness. It was only after the apparent eradication of whales in the North Atlantic that the international community brought into force the International Whaling Commission in 1948.



The story is repeated in terms of oil slicks and so many other forms of overexploitation. With a great deal of hindsight, humanity is slowly learning to behave in an adult-fashion in relation to the ocean: it is a slow and tedious process along which humanity does not advance in a straight line.



The Encyclical Laudato Si’ asks the question ‘Who has transformed the marvellous marine world into an under-water cemetery deprived of life and colour?’ (LS, §41). It’s time to read the Encyclical again.



On the epistemological level, we have since 1950 been witnessing the emergence and the construction of oceanographic science in all its multidisciplinary complexity. On the economic level, the utmost exploitation, masterfully filmed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (Ocean Planet, 2012) is no longer the model to follow. Alternative paths are emerging. Protected marine areas could form 10% of the ocean in 2020 (in 1993 it was a mere 0.3%), the vast majority of them located in waters falling under national jurisdictions. On the regulatory level, the United Nations took 30 years to negotiate the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) signed at Montego Bay in 1982, and diplomats aim to supplement measures in the area in which regulation is most lacking, namely the management of the high seas. In terms of living together, access to and sharing resources from the sea crystallises deep tension among individual interests; tackling these tensions and seeking the common good constitutes an immense challenge.



On the ontological level, more and more voices are calling for another relationship to the ocean. We are all members and stewards of creation. The ocean is the source of life on earth. Our responsibility for the ocean stems from our human condition.