Northeast Continental Shelf's Sea Surface Temperatures Reach Highest Level In 150 Years

Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem were the highest recorded in the last 150 years during 2012, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC).

Specifically, the area reached 14 degrees Celsius (57.2 degrees Fahrenheit). According to the NEFSC, the sea surface temperature over the last 30 years was typically lower than 12.4 degrees Celsius, or 54.3 degrees Fahrenheit.

The shift represents one of only five times in which the temperature has change by more than 1 degree Celsius.

According to the center, the high temperatures are the latest in a trend of warmer-than-usual waters seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a series of elevated temperatures throughout the Northwest Atlantic not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin in the past century.

The information was obtained through satellite remote-sensing data as well as long-term ship-board measurements.

Meanwhile, the Northeast Shelf’s warm water thermal habitat also reached a record high, while the cold water habitat reached a record low. Early winter mixing of the water column subsequently dropped to extreme depths, which in turn will impact the spring 2013 plankton bloom as well as the redistribution of nutrients and stratification of the water column as the bloom develops, according to the NEFSC.

Such changes, scientists warn, could wreak havoc to the native species.

“Changes in ocean temperatures and the timing and strength of spring and fall plankton blooms could affect the biological clocks of many marine species, which spawn at specific times of the year based on environmental cues like water temperature,” Kevin Frieldand, a NEFSC scientist, said in a press release.

The temperature changes also affect the distribution of fish and shellfish in the area with American lobster shifting upshelf over time and the Atlantic cod and haddock shifting downshelf, the agency said.

For this reason, Michael Fogarty, head of the Ecosystem Assessment Program, said the pressure is on to monitor the distribution of many species, some of which are migratory.

“It isn’t always easy to understand the big picture when you are looking at one specific part of it at one specific point in time,” he said, adding that what the latest findings mean for the area’s ecosystem is “unknown.”