MARINA DEL RAY, Calif. — Scientists have seen evidence of the fires well beyond the Palisades and Altadena areas, including in the sea.

Scientists on boats have been collecting data to understand what the fires’ effects may be on the coastal environment.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego chemical oceanographer Minerva Padilla Villa and UCSD undergraduate marine biology student Emna Braham collected samples from the air by capturing trace metals and the ocean to capture micro algae and particulate organic matter through a series of filter. The data will later be examined in a lab.

The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations was out on the water while the Palisades and Eaton fires were burning doing one of their four-time-a-year fish monitoring sampling and came back with black, ashy, soot-filled samples that will be analyzed.

Andrew Thompson with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fishery Science Center noted that part of the analysis will include looking at how the ash and other elements in the water may be effecting the baby fish, including size and growth rate.