Swordfish and jellyfish thrive in warm N. Atlantic - Reuters

[Eugene]

Swordfish and jellyfish thrive in warm N. Atlantic
19 Jan 2007 13:15:15 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Parts of the North Atlantic are setting winter heat records,
allowing species ranging from swordfish to jellyfish to thrive beyond their normal
ranges in a shift linked by many scientists to global warming.

Temperatures in Arctic waters off northern Europe at the tail end of the Gulf Stream,
for example, are about 6.7 Celsius (44.06 Fahrenheit), the highest for early January
since records began in the 1930s, according to Norway's Institute of Marine Research.

The world's oceans are already in a warming trend that could alter fish stocks,
perhaps damaging coral reefs that are vital nurseries for tropical species while
boosting northern stocks of cod or herring.

"The global oceans have been warming since the middle 1970s and several studies
have shown that the warming can be attributed to a human-produced signal," said
James Hurrell of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18934692.htm

Those "northern stocks of cod or herring" would be near Greenland.

[phantom power]

1. I read an interesting Scientific American article on eutrophication zones.

Jellyfish were listed as one of the "dead-end" species that thrive in these dead-zones. They use up resources, but most members of the ecosystem can't eat them. All the biomass ends up on the ocean floor, where decomposition sucks up the O2.