The world’s oceans are warming, and the marginal seas exhibit more notable warming than the open ocean due to their proximity to land and other unique regional factors. The Yellow Sea and East China Sea (YECS, Fig. 1) are marginal seas east of China, and have warmed steadily in the last century. In fact, the warming trend of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the YECS is more pronounced than the global mean state. The increasing SST can cause sea level rise, change ocean currents and atmospheric air flows, and affect ecosystem conditions.