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Author Topic: Zooplankton, Herring and Puffers - the new climate refugees  (Read 2575 times)

jai mitchell

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Pity the poor puffin and razorbills. . .



Something Is Seriously Wrong on the East Coast—and It's Killing All the Baby Puffins

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/gulf-maine-puffin-climate-change

Quote
But Kress soon noticed that something was wrong. Puffins dine primarily on hake and herring, two teardrop-shaped fish that have always been abundant in the Gulf of Maine. But Petey's parents brought him mostly butterfish, which are shaped more like saucers. Kress watched Petey repeatedly pick up butterfish and try to swallow them.

Hake and herring, meanwhile, got the hell out of Dodge, heading for cooler waters. In all, at least 14 Gulf of Maine fish species have been shifting northward or deeper in search of relief.

In recent history, the average ocean surface temperature of the Gulf of Maine has hovered around 44 degrees Fahrenheit. 2013 was the second-warmest year in the Gulf in three decades, with an average surface temperature of 46.6 degrees. But it was nowhere near the freakish spike to 47.5 degrees in 2012

For 40 years, Stephen Kress has traveled to the same Maine islands each spring, has watched the same puffin couples return year after year to raise their chicks. Now he doesn't know what to think. "I've seen colonies go up and down, and I know one year doesn't make a pattern, but you can't help but wonder. We've worked decades to build those populations up, and in 2013 we lost a third. That's pretty dramatic."

http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/

Current regional Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=293.53,43.69,3000
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Niall Dollard

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Re: Zooplankton, Herring and Puffers - the new climate refugees
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2018, 10:37:10 AM »
Trying to find a thread already open on the plight of puffins - so I will resurrect this thread.

Since this thread was opened the plight of the puffin has got very bad in some parts.  :

NY times report from Iceland

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/29/climate/puffins-dwindling-iceland.html?smid=tw-share

Silent sea cliffs on the Shetland Isles.

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/03/shetland-seabirds-climate-change-catastrophe-terns-kittiwakes-puffins?__twitter_impression=true

Many are pointing the finger at SST rise. But I wonder has it changed a whole lot in the past 50 years ? What about the cold blob in the Atlantic the one part of the globe that has warmed the least.

Or is it really just overfishing - extracting everything from the sea ?