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Marine Animals on the Motility

"Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the bounding main, the ocean touches you with every jiff you take, every drop of water you lot potable, every bite y'all consume.
Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the being of the sea."

-Sylvia Earle

Map showing August Sea Temperature Anomaly for Gulf of Maine
In Baronial 2018, scientists using satellite data and sea-based sensors measured the 2nd warmest sea surface temperatures ever observed in the Gulf of Maine. Shades of cherry-red and blueish indicate how much water temperatures were above or below the long-term average for the region.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, and sea surface temperature information from Coral Reef Watch.

You may be familiar with estrus waves on land, but in a changing, warming world, estrus waves are starting to become common in the body of water, too. The normally absurd Gulf of Maine, which surrounds Acadia National Park, has seen several heat waves in recent years and has spent well-nigh of the last 2 centuries with unusually warm water temperatures. Since 2004, the ocean h2o temperature has risen approximately 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit. On the surface, this may seem similar a pocket-size difference, but information technology has large implications. This increment means the Gulf of Maine is warming 99% faster than the rest of the globe'due south oceans.

The Gulf of Maine Research Heart believes temperatures in the Gulf of Maine are climbing for 2 main reasons:

  1. Rise air temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations are causing warming of the oceans worldwide.
  2. Ice melt in Greenland is pumping fresh h2o out of the arctic, which is changing normal ocean currents in the region.


These changes are bringing warmer currents into the expanse and, in turn, are irresolute what animals we're seeing inhabit the body of water waters effectually Acadia National Park. Every bit sea water temperatures warm, the distribution of many marine species—including those we rely on for food—will shift due to their dependence on specific h2o temperatures. Warmer h2o temperatures too deplete vital nutrients and decrease the oxygen content in the water which tin can also cause species to migrate elsewhere to feed. One time those species shift, the predators that rely on them for nutrient must adapt or follow.

light pink squid on black background
Longfin Squid, one of the many migrators to Frenchman Bay surrounding Acadia National Park.

Photo Credit: NOAA

New Species Sally

Environmental changes take already forced marine creatures, normally found further south, to movement into the Gulf of Maine such as:

  • Longfin Squid (Doryteuthis (Amerigo) pealeii)
  • Blackness Sea Bass (Centropristis striata)
  • Body of water Horses (Hippocampus erectus)
  • Butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus)
  • Bounding main Sunfish (Mola mola)
  • Green Crab (Carcinus maenas)
Seal head in ocean water
Gray Seal well-nigh Schoodic Peninsula

Photo Credit: Schoodic Establish

Gray Seals, which have historically inhabited Frenchman Bay, take increased in number here equally their range continues to shift northward.

Ironically, the warmer water initially created platonic conditions for lobsters. This contributed to an overabundance in Maine in contempo years, causing prices to tumble to their everyman point in nearly ii decades. Continued warming may be forcing the lobsters to move even further north toward Nova Scotia. These changes are too harming some of Maine's other nigh economically and culturally significant fisheries including shrimp, oysters, scallops, and cod.

Other valuable species, such as clams and mussels, are shifting to deeper or more northern waters to stay cool. Clams and mussels are also vulnerable to a new predator: the invasive green crabs that are thriving in Maine's warming waters.

Puffins on rocky island near coast
Puffins on Petit Manan Island in the Gulf of Maine.

Photo credit: USFWS

New species moving in pose problems for native animals that aren't adapted to these newcomers. Atlantic Puffins usually feast on herring and hake, which have started moving northward, leaving puffins to forage for the larger butterfish to feed their chicks. However, butterfish are often too wide for the chicks to eat, which creates challenges for the puffin colonies. Puffin chicks have starved and died because of a lack of the herring and hake they demand to grow and fledge successfully. Although puffins are not commonly found in or along Acadia'due south boundaries, the implications of changing ecoystems in the Gulf of Maine and surrounding waters is extremely relevant to the survial of species beyond the greater littoral Maine ecosystem.

whale breaching in ocean water
Northern Right Whale breaching in the Atlantic Ocean

Photo Credit: NOAA

Not all marine species will continue to reply to irresolute temperatures and nutrient availability at the same time, which can and volition disrupt the food web. Many marine creatures time their reproductive and migratory cycles around prey, such as whales migrating through the Gulf of Maine to the Chill to feed on krill in the summertime and salmon migrating to the oceans for seasonal nutrients. When these patterns are disrupted due to a irresolute climate, they tin can besides alter predator-prey relationships, increment starvation in many species, and result in poor reproductive success.

This is not only an Acadia National Park issue. Over eighty National Park sites are coastal, so it's likely you have been to other sites that volition exist facing these same issues due to climate change. If left to current devices, these changes will continue to affect our treasured ocean ecosystems and every co-operative of the food web. Learn more than about the changes that Acadia and other national parks are going through and what you lot can practice to assistance .

Concluding updated: August 14, 2021