Recently a couple of Mola Mola (ocean sunfish) fish species,typically found in much warmer tropical and temperate water have been spotted in east coast New Brunswick. There has been speculation that due to climate change, the Mola have been venturing further north into waters as oceans warm.
Now comes word that lobster,which like cold water, have also been moving northward along the North American coast as the waters off the US warm.
At Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia, Professor Boris Worm has recently co-authored a study published in Science Magazine, which shows a clear shift in marine species range as ocean temperatures change
The study compiled 40 years of data and found that in all areas of North America organisms were moving as ocean temperatures change.
“ What we found is that they’re tracking the local climate velocity — that is the direction and rate of climate change across the landscape — very, very accurately. So if you know where the temperature is going, you know where the fish are going,” said Worm
“In our region the climate seems to be just right, so lobster seems to be doing quite well. Whether this will be the same in the future and maybe the more distant future is hard to say. It depends on the rate and direction of climate change in our region,” said Worm.
An earlier study also suggested that predator species of young lobster, such as cod, have been overfished which is also contributing to the abundance in Canadian waters.
Worm said lobsters are moving from the waters off southern New England into those off of Atlantic Canada at a rate of six kilometres per year.
Lobster fishermen in Canada have been reporting far greater catches of lobster in the past few years, which has actually been problematic as its resulted in lower prices to the lobstermen.
This recent study examined the North Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific shelf and waters around Alaska. The study was the first ever to combine U.S. and Canadian fisheries data for all of coastal North America.
The data collected over four decades included 128-million samples of 360 different marine species.
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