North Atlantic Ocean Temps Hit Record High


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Jul 8, 10:00 AM (ET)


ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland (AP) - Ocean temperatures in the North
Atlantic hit an all-time high last year, raising concerns about the
effects of global warming on one of the most sensitive and productive
ecosystems in the world.

Sea ice off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador was below normal
for the tenth consecutive year and the water temperature outside St.
John's Harbor was the highest on record in 2004, according to a report
released Wednesday by the federal Fisheries Department.

The ocean surface off St. John's averaged almost two degrees
Fahrenheit above normal, the highest in the 59 years the department
has been compiling records.

And bottom temperatures were also one degree higher than normal,
according the report.

"A two-degree temperature anomaly on the Grand Banks is pretty
significant in the bottom areas, where temperatures only range a
couple of degrees throughout the year," said Eugene Colbourne, an
oceanographer with the Fisheries Department.

Water temperatures were above normal right across the North Atlantic
last year, from Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland and Norway.

The Newfoundland data is another wake-up call on climate change, say
environmentalists.

Anchorage, Alaska, has seen annual snowfall shrink in the past decade,
high river temperatures are killing off millions of spawning salmon in
British Columbia and northern climates around the world have noticed
warming.

Meanwhile, ocean temperatures have risen around the globe, and species
are already dying, said Bill Wareham, acting director of marine
conservation for the Vancouver-based David Suzuki Foundation.

"I don't think there's a question about whether these changes are
happening," Wareham said.

But "everyone's quite shocked at the speed at which these things are
changing."

Air temperatures in the Newfoundland region were also higher than
normal, but Colbourne said the results are not conclusive.

Water temperatures in the cold Labrador current were actually below
normal levels. And while the other temperatures were record highs, a
similar warming trend occurred in the 1960s, Colbourne said.

"We really can't say for sure if what we're seeing in Newfoundland
waters is a consequence of global warming, when we've only got 50
years of data or so," Colbourne said.

"It may be related to global warming but, then again, it may be just
the natural cycle that we see in this area of the world."