ST. JOHN'S, Nfld.—"Ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic hit highs last year, raising concerns about the effects of global warming on one of the most sensitive and productive ecosystems in the world.
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 Harbour was the highest on record in 2004, according to a report released yesterday by the federal fisheries department.
The ocean surface about seven kilometres off St. John's, which ranged from slightly less than 0C in February to 15C in August, averaged 1.1C above normal, the highest in the 59 years the department has kept records. Bottom temperatures were 0.9C higher than normal, and the highest since 1966. The average temperature near the bottom, calculated since 1946 at 176 metres, normally ranges between 0C and 0.5C.
"A one-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. Water temperatures were above normal right across the North Atlantic last year, from Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland and Norway."
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