The North Kenya Banks (NKBs) have recently emerged as a new frontier for food security and could become an economically important fishery for Kenya with improved resources providing better accessibility. Little research has been done on the mechanisms supporting high fish productivity over the NKBs with information on annual and interannual environmental variability lacking. Here we use a high‐resolution, global, biogeochemical ocean model with remote sensing observations to demonstrate that the ocean circulation exerts an important control on the productivity over the NKBs. During the Northeast Monsoon, which occurs from December to February, upwelling occurs along the Kenyan coast, which is topographically enhanced over the NKBs. Additionally, enhanced upwelling events, associated with widespread cool temperatures, elevated chlorophyll, nutrients, primary production, and phytoplankton biomass, can occur over this region. Eight such modeled events, characterized by primary production exceeding 1.3 g C/m⁻²/day, were found to occur during January or February from 1993–2015. Even though the upwelling is always rooted to the NKBs, the position, spatial extent, and intensity of the upwelling exhibit considerable interannual variability. The confluence zone between the Somali Current and East African Coastal Current (referred to as the Somali‐Zanzibar Confluence Zone) forms during the Northeast Monsoon and is highly variable. We present evidence that when the Somali‐Zanzibar Confluence Zone is positioned further south, it acts to enhance shelf‐edge upwelling and productivity over the NKBs. These findings provide the first indication of the environmental controls that need to be considered when developing plans for the sustainable exploitation of the NKB fishery.

Up to now, the UK has avoided major marine heatwaves (MHWs) that cause severe damage to marine ecosystems and the blue economy. However, an unprecedented in its intensity, though short-lived, MHW occurred in UK waters in June 2023. This event sounded an alarm bell, highlighting gaps in our understanding of MHW characteristics and their potential future impacts in the UK. Here, we use a combination of remote sensing data and model output to characterise MHWs and Marine Cold Spells (MCSs) around the UK and the wider North Atlantic, and to assess the potential for concurrent biogeochemical extreme events. Results indicate that across the wider North Atlantic, the UK is not a hot spot for MHWs or MCSs but, regionally, the southern North Sea experiences the most activity. This is also the location of extreme chlorophyll-a concentrations, here termed blue waves (low chlorophyll-a) and green waves (high chlorophyll-a). However, there is not a very pronounced relationship between temperature and chlorophyll-a extremes, which may be impacted by the exact location, drivers and season of occurrence. In contrast, the southern North Sea and English Channel may experience a MHW and low near-bottom oxygen compound events year-round, which, due to the combination of thermal stress and reduced oxygen availability, may negatively impact benthic marine ecosystems. While MHWs in UK waters do not appear to be as long-lasting or intense as other well-documented events around the world, they are projected to increase. Thus, the UK has a unique opportunity to learn from other nations and so develop robust and comprehensive policies to increase preparedness and response capability for future extreme events.