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El Niño--The Christ Child--was the name given by Peruvian fishermen to the warming of the offshore waters that normally occurs around Christmas time and ends the seasonal harvest of anchovies that give Peru the world's largest fish catch. But the term is now used to cover the abnormal warming of the waters that occurs every few years along the coasts of both South and North America when the sea winds die and the upwelling fails--for complicated reasons that are not clearly understood.
Source: This World. August 14, 1983.
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