paoer 3 



sLiahtLy. The anomaly oattern closely resembled that of January^ 

 although the area of positive anomaly contracted and moved 

 northward slightly and the area of anomaly qreater than -1C also 

 decreased. Below normal temperatures continued off the North 

 American west coast. 



Along the western boundary of the Perj Current/' SST's increased 

 1C to ?C since last month from 5N to 20S between 85W and 115W. 

 Warm anomalies of up to +3C occurred inshore of this area. This 

 above normal warminq was associated with a Southern Hemisphere 

 high pressure system which was weaker than usual. The equatorial 

 front between o5w and 95W was very weak, SST's in this area 

 exceeded 26C and the fleet made exceptionally good catches of 

 yell ow fin tuna. 



During this month northerly winds from the Gulf of Mexico 

 frequently penetrated the Gulf of Tehusntepec and the Costa Rican 

 fishing grounas. Strong winas and rough seas caused very bad 

 fishing weather up to SCO miles south and west of these areas. 

 SST's were lowered as much as 5C by wind mixing. Tt^e Gulf of 

 Panama also experienced extensive wind mixing cf surface Layers 

 and below normal surface temperatures. 



A severe eartnquake occurred in Guatemala on 4 February. At 



093C GMT that dayr at 14Ki24'r 94W2:5'/ the ship Unigue Fortune 



reported^ "Vessel suddenly jumped twicer shuddered violently in 

 calm sea." 



March - Seasonal cooling continued over the ENP; SST's dropped 

 up to 1C since last month and approached the annual minimum. The 

 anomaly pattern continued similar to last month's except that the 

 -1C anomaly pool centered at 25 N/ 135W in February disappeared, 

 winds associated with low pressures in the Gulf of Alaska were 

 stronger than normal. 



In the ETP sea surface warming is expected in ("arch. However^ 

 the fishing grounds southwest of baja California experienced 

 cooling greater tnan 1 Cr and fishing decreased due to rough 

 weather. i^lost of the fleet shifted to south of 2jN where the 

 SST's were up to 1C above normal. 



Tuna fishing was very good south of the Galapagos Islands where 

 SST anomalies. were positive. Above normal warming occurred off 

 Ecuador and offshore of Peru^ the +1C anomaly areas showinc up 

 clearly in NESS satellite charts -from infrared data and from ship 

 reports. South of 1GS and east of 78Wy SST's have been up to 1C 

 below normal along the coast of Chile for many months. 



AqiIL. ~ Sea surface temperatures over most of the ENP increased 

 only slightly from the f^arch minimum values/ and dropped up to 

 0.6C between aaja California and Hawaii^ creating a large area of 



37 



