Scientists: Temperatures In Gulf Of Maine Near All-Time High

Water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine are on course to be among the warmest on record.  The "marine heatwave" is associated with some major ecosystem changes.

Scientists at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute use satellite data to chart surface-level water  temperatures at some 400 locations in the Gulf of Maine. And through early summer, it looked like the Gulf's temperatures might fall within historical norms.

"But then in July the temperatures just started to really shoot up," says Andrew Pershing, the Institute's chief scientific officer.

"We were watching in early August as the temperature started to hit levels we've never seen before for that time of year," Pershing says. "And we actually hit temperatures that were very close to setting an all-time record for the Gulf of Maine."

On Aug. 8 GMRI recorded an average temperature of more than 68 degrees Fahrenheit - just five one hundredths of a degree lower than a record set in 2012.

And, as in that year, the high water temperatures this year are associated with scarcity in some species, such as herring, and relative abundance in others usually found farther south, such as squid, black sea bass and butterfish.