Tasmanian Ocean Temps Now 4.5C Over Avg. - 2X GBR Bleaching Temps, Oysters Hard Hit

Ocean temperatures off the coast of Tasmania have risen to 4.5C above average – twice the temperature rise that led to the mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef – in a marine heatwave that has lasted more than 130 days. The above-average temperatures were first recorded in December and have continued into April, affecting the oyster, salmon and abalone industries, as well as stressing already declining kelp forests.

Dr Alistair Hobday, a senior principal research scientist with the CSIRO in Tasmania, said the heatwave could be attributed to El Niño, which extends the southern tip of the East Australian Current down to Tasmania, bringing warmer waters with it, and the effects of climate change.

“Part of the warming we just can’t explain as being down to something other than global warming,” Hobday told Guardian Australia. “In about four months – we are doing that work now – we will be able to say that 60% of it is due to climate change and 40% is due to El Niño.”

While the heatwave’s visual impacts were “not as dramatic as the bleaching of the coral reef”, Hobday said it had contributed to the mass death of oysters from Pacific Oyster mortality syndrome (Poms), which had never been reported in the state before devastating Tasmanian oyster farms this summer.

EDIT

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/22/tasmania-marine-heatwave-salmon-global-warming-climate-change