HALIFAX -- A federal report suggests some Maritime waters were warmer than normal last year, including record-breaking temperatures at the bottom of the Scotian Shelf and Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Fisheries scientist David Hebert said parts of the Scotian Shelf increased by up to 3 C in 2016, which he said is consistent with an upward trend in temperatures in some parts of the ocean over the past decade.
"Water temperatures were well above normal throughout the region," said Hebert, who works at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax. "The Nova Scotia-area was way above normal."
Hebert, who contributed to the federal report, said the annual assessment compiles the findings of ocean researchers from the Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Gulf and Maritime regions to provide a "high-level" portrait of Canada's eastern waters.
The report found temperatures near the bottom of the ocean were normal or above normal across the region. It said highs in the deep waters of the northern gulf broke a century-long record, and temperatures are projected to increase for the next two to three years.
Parts of the Bay of Fundy also saw unseasonably warm waters last year, according to the report. Ocean temperatures near Newfoundland and Labrador hovered around average.
Hebert said this year's findings didn't cause as much alarm as when ocean temperatures peaked in the area in 2012.
"When it happened the first time in 2012 ... that was the one that really surprised everybody, because that was when we first had really strong signals that were everywhere," he said. "It looks like it might be a change in the average conditions in the ocean, given the years."
Hebert said the oceanic survey suggests a shift in the distribution of plankton, a vital food source to marine life, which could have ramifications throughout the ecosystem.
He said there has been a regional decline of a certain type of energy-rich plankton eaten by North Atlantic right whales, particularly in the Scotian Shelf, an area southwest of Nova Scotia that previously served as the whales' primary feeding grounds.
There's been speculation that right whales have followed their food source to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Hebert said, where 10 of the endangered animals have been found dead since early June.
Small changes in conditions can influence a finely-tuned marine ecosystem, said Hebert, and those who depend on it for their livelihood.
"To give you an example, lobsters, when they molt, that's very temperature dependant," he said. "If the bottom temperatures are really warm, then they're probably going to molt earlier and that might mean they might have to change the lobster season.
Hebert said more data is needed to determine whether the temperature variations are connected to climate change, and it's hard to predict what the impacts might be.
He said Ottawa is investing about $1 million to purchase eight gliders, which will make it easier to monitor Atlantic waters year-round.
