The ocean generates 50 percent of the oxygen we need, absorbs 30 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 percent of the excess heat generated by these emissions.

Its a common word used for large areas of ocean water of anomalous temperature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob_(Pacific_Ocean)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_blob

Blob is perfectly good word, and much more precise in this case than 'mass'.

How are readers not taking it seriously, and what would be different if they did

The people tasked with knowing why it happens dont know why it happens

sometimes it's more than enough

Think about it this way, to be able to say that it takes place annually instead of i.e. biannually or monthly, you need a lot more than one sample per year. You need enough samples to know when it is or isn't occurring.

https://www.earth.com/news/unprecedented-collapse-panamas-oc... mentions a lot of date oriented measurements which suggest they probably have at least 52 samples per year, if not daily samples:

> The 40-year record makes the 2025 failure stand out. Average historical onset around January 20 contrasts with a March 4 threshold crossing in 2025.

> The cool season shrank from roughly nine weeks to less than two weeks. Minimum sea surface temperature (SST) rose from historical lows near 66.2°F to about 73.9°F.