- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- And bottom temperatures were also one degree higher than
normal, according the report.
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- "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.
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- Water temperatures were above normal right across the
North Atlantic last year, from Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland and Norway.
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- The Newfoundland data is another wake-up call on climate
change, say environmentalists.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "I don't think there's a question about whether
these changes are happening," Wareham said.
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- But "everyone's quite shocked at the speed at which
these things are changing."
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- Air temperatures in the Newfoundland region were also
higher than normal, but Colbourne said the results are not conclusive.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- "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."
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