SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) — The waters off New England had one other heat yr however didn’t warmth up as quick as earlier this decade, bucking a pattern of higher warming worldwide, stated scientists who examine the Atlantic Ocean close to Maine.
The Gulf of Maine, which touches three New England states and Canada, emerged as a test case for local weather change a couple of decade in the past as a result of it’s warming a lot sooner than many of the world’s oceans. The gulf is residence to among the nation’s most useful seafood species and is important to the American lobster business.
The gulf’s annual sea floor temperature final yr was 51.5 levels Fahrenheit (10.8 levels Celsius), in accordance with the Gulf of Maine Analysis Institute in Portland. That was greater than 0.88 F (0.49 C) above the long-term common from 1991 to 2020, the institute stated in a report launched this month.
Though final yr was the gulf’s twelfth warmest yr on file, it was down from the fifth warmest a yr earlier, the report acknowledged. The gulf additionally set back-to-back information for warmest years ever in 2021 and 2022, so it was the third consecutive yr of a decline in temperature.
“The circumstances seen within the Gulf of Maine have been a departure from the record-setting temperatures seen elsewhere within the North Atlantic and the world over’s oceans,” the report stated.
The gulf’s common annual sea floor temperatures have been warming at a charge of 0.84 levels Fahrenheit per decade from 1982 to 2024, the report stated — almost triple the speed of the world’s oceans.
The warming of the Gulf of Maine has gotten the eye of the seafood business as a result of scientists have linked it to the decline in baby lobsters settling within the space. The gulf can also be residence to weak seabirds reminiscent of Atlantic puffins and marine mammals such because the North Atlantic right whale.
The Gulf of Maine Analysis Institute has recognized a number of elements which have brought on the swift warming of the gulf, one in every of which is that local weather change is strengthening the Gulf Stream, and that brings warmer water northward. One other consider that the chilly Labrador Present is weakening, and meaning it not acts as a buffer to incoming hotter waters, the institute has stated.
The report acknowledged that 2024 included winter months with beneath common temperatures whereas June was the second warmest on file. It additionally acknowledged warmer-than-average sea floor temperatures have been concentrated in summer time and fall whereas colder-than-average temperatures occurred in winter months initially and finish of the yr.
Picture: Lobster fishermen at work off Kennebunkport, Maine, in 2022. (AP Picture/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
Copyright 2025 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
An important insurance coverage information,in your inbox each enterprise day.
Get the insurance coverage business’s trusted publication
