Warmer Cape Cod Losing Namesake Catch

Traditional New England Fish Lured to Cooler Waters

(AP)  Fishermen have known for years that they've had to steam farther and farther from shore to find the cod, haddock and winter flounder that typically fill dinner plates in New England.

A new federal study documenting the warming waters of the North Atlantic confirms that they're right - and that the typical meal could eventually change to the Atlantic croaker, red hake and summer flounder normally found to the south.

"Fishermen are businessmen, so if they have to go farther and deeper to catch the fish that we like to eat, eventually it won't be economical to do that," said Janet Nye, a fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the lead author of the study.

"It just won't be in your local seafood store, or maybe it'll be more expensive," said Nye, who works at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass. "So I think there'll be a natural, hopefully slow, switch to different seafoods."

For the study, which first appeared Oct. 30 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, Nye and three other NOAA biologists analyzed water temperature trends from North Carolina to the Canadian border off Maine from 1968 to 2007. They then looked at fish survey data collected each spring and assessed where the fish were caught and how abundant they were.

The researchers looked at the familiar New England species. as well as lesser-known fish such as longhorn sculpin and blackbelly rosefish.

Of the 36 stocks studied, the distribution range of 24 of them had changed in unison with the rising water temperatures that have been occurring off the Northeast since the 1970s.

That temperature rise doesn't sound like much - less than half a degree Fahrenheit, on average - but it's been enough to cause fish to slowly move to areas with temperatures more to their liking.

The greatest movement was exhibited by the blackbelly rosefish, which moved more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the northeast during the years studied. Among commercial species, movements of more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) were observed for southern stocks of yellowtail flounder and red hake, as well as American shad and alewives.

Some fish exhibited little movement to the north, but rather moved to deeper waters where temperatures are lower, according to the report.

Small-boat fishermen on Cape Cod caught most of their haddock and flounder, as well as the peninsula's namesake fish, in waters close to shore 20 years ago, said Tom Dempsey, of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association. Nowadays, they have to travel as far 100 miles (160 kilometers) offshore to find those same fish, he said.

At the same time, he said, Massachusetts fishermen are catching more fish traditionally found in the Middle Atlantic - Atlantic croaker, in particular, usually caught off Virginia and North Carolina.

"How much of that is directly impacted by climate change is hard to get a handle on," Dempsey said. "There are a number of other factors that have been at play, one being overharvesting in inshore areas and, subsequently, ecological changes as inshore areas have become dominated in a lot of areas by spiny dogfish populations."

The study is one piece of the puzzle in figuring out the factors that influence ocean species, said Jason Link, a NOAA fisheries biologist and a co-author of the study. While the report says climate change is the driving factor, he said, other influences - such as fishing pressure and long-term natural cycles in ocean temperatures and atmospheric conditions - play a role.

"We're looking at how much of this movement to colder waters is perhaps related to the environment as opposed to how much is due to fishing," he said. "I don't think this paper totally answers that question."

While the report documents the movement of fish in the Northeast and the Middle Atlantic, there's evidence to suggest that marine organisms in southern U.S. waters are also moving north, said Jay Odell, a marine specialist with The Nature Conservancy in Richmond, Va.

Sea turtles that normally nest on beaches in North Carolina and south have been nesting in Virginia and Maryland in recent years, he said, possibly because of rising water temperatures.

"One of the messages of this paper is that tracking why some fish are doing well and some aren't, and why fish are moving, is a very complicated business," Odell said.

[cbs4111]

It's like playing "whack-a-mole" with these global warming alarmists.

By the way, CBS, where's the story about the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declaring this last October to the 3rd coldest IN RECORDED HISTORY?????

The principle driver for Atlantic temperatures is NOT CO2 it's the natural Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation. That oscillation drives temperatures in the ocean as well as the Arctic. The paper listed below contains a nice plot of the Atlantic Oscillation going back to 1910.

Arctic air temperature change amplification and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Petr Chylek - Space and Remote Sensing, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

Chris K. Folland - Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change, Exeter, UK

Glen Lesins -Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Manvendra K. Dubey - Earth and Environmental Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

Muyin Wang - Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA


Temperature trend reversals in 1940 and 1970 separate two Arctic warming periods (1910 to 1940 and 1970 to 2008) by a significant 1940 to 1970 cooling period. Analyzing temperature records of the Arctic meteorological stations we find that (a) the Arctic amplification (ratio of the Arctic to global temperature trends) is not a constant but varies in time on a multi-decadal time scale, (b) the Arctic warming from 1910 to 1940 proceeded at a significantly faster rate than the current 1970 to 2008 warming, and (c) the Arctic temperature changes are highly correlated with the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) suggesting the Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation is linked to the Arctic temperature variability on a multi-decadal time scale.

[doctor_know]

Monthly and even annual variation like you discuss is not significant to the discussion of long term climate change. These rapid variations are like noise compared with the slow warming trend. Decadal oscillations exist in addition to the background warming trend.

There is absolutely no way to explain the coexistence of stratospheric cooling and tropospheric warming without the greenhouse effect. There is no way to dispute that humans make up a large part of the greenhouse gas increase since industrialization.

Your comments are not proof that the IPCC is wrong!

[Sloughfoot]

Amen - But it's kind of like swiming up stream. So many are so willing to blindly follow the dooms-dayers that they unwilling to research the issue. Climatic cycles of the past are readily dismissed by this "The Sky is Falling" crew because to do so would expose their gravey train for what it is, a self serving campaign to achieve wealth and acclaim.

[nomealaska]

I am sure that climate change is one influence, however, the NEFMC has been allowing the larger trawlers to gobble up (DAS - Days at Sea) from the smaller vessels. They have been overfishing the Gulf of Maine for decades because they have refused to use quotas for managing the stocks. The best management they have developed came from court-ordered decisions. They have long been the laughing stock of all America's fishery management councils. The worst thing I ever heard about Alaska's council (NPFMC) was a comparison of them to the New England Council. Now they are trying to develop a quota-based management system, but the big boats will win since they have the best fishing history (from buying all the "days at sea" from the smaller vessels. They want to allocate the quotas based on their erroneously-gained fishing history. Someone should dump 1,000 lbs of gillnet-caught cod on their doorstep to show them the waste their trip limits cause on just one boat in just one day. Bunch of greedy bums!

[Sloughfoot]

http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm Just another web site of many out there for those who really want to learn about a history of climatic change on this planet. Do your own learning or file in behind the pied piper - wasn't he the dude who duped the rats into jumping into the sea. Didn't jump himself now did he?

[Sloughfoot]

The band wagon, the band wagon you all come join the band wagon we're going to Jonestown.

[Wolf1944]

And the armadillos have been moving north for decades.

[lakota2012]

"The study is one piece of the puzzle in figuring out the factors that influence ocean species, said Jason Link, a NOAA fisheries biologist and a co-author of the study. While the report says climate change is the driving factor, he said, other influences - such as fishing pressure and long-term natural cycles in ocean temperatures and atmospheric conditions - play a role."
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Obviously there are several factors causing the change in the fisheries, but warming oceans and surface temperatures are definitely at the top of the list. Even bird species and vegetation have been seen moving farther north on land than in the past, which also parallels the receding glaciers and Arctic ice/snow melt due to a warming climate.

The anti-science denialists continue their ranting and raving, but obviously will have a very hard time with the reality of a warming planet over the next few decades, as the warming accelerates due to decades of footdragging as climatologists have been screaming their dire warnings.

[Wolf1944]

We live in a time when people listen to Suzanne Somers about cancer, to Jenny McCarthy about vaccines and to Rush Limbaugh about global warming. Can't wait to read Michael Specter's Denialism.

[bcpats]

oh, oh - - global warming, global warming !! Al Gore, where are you??

Hmmm.... how long ago was it that 'the scientists' were telling us we were headed for an ice-age recurrence.

[Wolf1944]

It was never that any sizable number of scientists were telling us the ice age was coming back. That was just in science fiction.

[doctor_know]

The great thing about science is that as time goes on, and theories are more heavily tested, they become more refined, accurate, and gain more predictive power.

[Sloughfoot]

Wolf1944-you should do the research before you type - your failure to do so displayes your handicap.

[Wolf1944]

Well, it doesn't take a lot of research to tell crackpottery from real science.

[Wolf1944]

And, Sloughfoot, you might want to learn to spell "displays."

[Sloughfoot]

Ah Wolf1944, is it my spelling or the fallicies exposed, that really irriatates you. When your band wagon of the blind and the ignorant is exposed, you can only resort to personal attacks.