Water too warm for cod in US Gulf of Maine as stocks near collapse

[bearssoapbox]

11. I was reading an article about the ice melt in Greenland and found this

I'm not saying that the cod are doing ok, just thought it was an interesting read after seeing your post. I agree that the oceans are being depleted of fish and polluted, possibly beyond repair. Incidences like this comeback of cod and other marine life will become the rarity in the future.

http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/cjfas-2015-0346#.VjIVhberTqA

Northern cod comeback

George A. Rose,* Sherrylynn Rowe

Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research, Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1C 5R3, Canada.

Corresponding author: George A. Rose (e-mail: [e-mail]).

*Present address: 4843 Cutlass Crt., Pender Island, BC V0N 2M2 Canada.

Published on the web 27 October 2015.

Received July 19, 2015. Accepted October 1, 2015.

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 10.1139/cjfas-2015-0346

Abstract

The great “northern” cod (Gadus morhua) stock, formerly among the world’s largest and the icon for depletion and supposed nonrecovery of marine fishes, is making a major comeback after nearly two decades of attrition and fishery moratorium. Using acoustic-trawl surveys of the main prespawning and spawning components of the stock, we show that biomass has increased from tens of thousands of tonnes to >200 thousand tonnes within the last decade. The increase was signalled by massive schooling behaviour in late winter first observed in 2008 in the southern range of the stock (Bonavista Corridor) after an absence for 15 years, perhaps spurred by immigration. Increases in size composition and fish condition and apparent declines in mortality followed, leading to growth rates approaching 30% per annum. In the spring of 2015, large increases in cod abundance and size composition were observed for the first time since the moratorium in the more northerly spawning groups of this stock complex. The cod rebound has paralleled increases in the abundance of capelin (Mallotus villosus), whose abundance declined rapidly in the cold early 1990s but has recently increased during a period of warm ocean temperatures. With continued growth in the capelin stock and frugal management (low fishing mortality), this stock could rebuild, perhaps within less than a decade, to historical levels of sustainable yield. More generally, if this stock can recover, the potential exists for recovery of many other depleted stocks worldwide.

Here's the article about the ice melting in Greenland.

It is a good read and more than a little disconcerting.

Personally, I think that the "Gulf Stream Engine" has already been altered, possibly beyond repair, and the next few decades will radically change the weather along the east coast of the U.S., England and western Europe.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/27/world/greenland-is-melting-away.html

Yes, Senator Snowball will fix it.