Scientists tracked a young #whale's journey before he vanished. What they learned could help save his species.
#Bishop’s story, from birth to presumed death, shows the extreme danger facing right #whales, which could be extinct in 3 decades if they continue to disappear at the present rate. Bishop’s species is not doomed to #extinction …but time is running out.
That day, off the coast of New Smyrna Beach, FL, scientists tagged #Bishop w/a satellite transmitter. For the next 50 days, he broadcast his location as he migrated over 1k mi up the #EastCoast. It was one of the longest transmissions of a #NorthAtlantic#RightWhale ever recorded.
…Bishop averaged about 50 mi / day for the rest of his northward journey. By March, he had joined other right #whales to search for food south of Nantucket, MA. On March 11, his tag fell off, ending the transmisison.
For much of his migration, #Bishop swam through waters where the lack of #SpeedLimits makes #vessel strikes more likely.
In 2022, the #Biden admin proposed expanding that area & applying speed limits to smaller #vessels….
The proposed expanded boundaries have been embraced by scientists & advocates, who say it could help save #NorthAtlantic#RightWhales from #extinction. But NOAA Fisheries, the agency behind the proposal, has yet to finalize the rule, which is still being reviewed by the WH.
East of #Greenland, there’s a stretch of open water about 1,300 miles across where the #Arctic can pour its icy heart out to the #NorthAtlantic. Those flows include increasing surges of cold and fresh water from melted ice, and a new study in the journal #Weather and #Climate Dynamics shows how those pulses can set off a chain reaction from the ocean to the atmosphere that ends up causing summer #heatwaves and #droughts in #Europe.
Crucial ocean current system could be on course to collapse with catastrophic impacts on global weather | https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/09/climate/atlantic-circulation-collapse-weather-climate/index.html “The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (the #AMOC) works like a giant global conveyor belt, taking warm water from the tropics toward the far #NorthAtlantic, where the water cools, becomes saltier and sinks deep into the ocean, before spreading southward.”
The currents carry heat and nutrients to different areas of the globe and play a vital role..”
This is not really good news. The point that AMOC collapse is demonstrated in complex models (CESM1) means that it looks to be real. AND the early warning indicators point towards us reaching it sometime in the future (although no-one knows exactly when), is worrisome. #AMOC#NorthAtlantic
"Together, these and other recent seismic studies complement the results from #climate and ocean research showing that storms, and waves, are intensifying as the climate warms.
#NorthAtlantic waves have intensified the fastest in recent decades compared to historical levels. #StormCiarán, which hit Europe with powerful waves and hurricane-force winds in November 2023, was one record-breaking example."
The pipe bridge and weir at Glasgow Green. This structure separates the fresh water of the River Clyde to its east from the salty, tidal waters to its west. Weirdly, this means much Glasgow sits on the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean and not on the banks of the River Clyde!
"June was UK’s hottest on record, says Met Office - Average temperature of 15.8C almost a full degree higher than previous highs for the month -
The Met Office has confirmed June was the hottest on record for the UK, eclipsing the last hottest by nearly a full degree.
Across the month, the country recorded an average mean temperature of 15.8C, beating the previous record of 14.9C, recorded in 1940 and 1976.
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also reported their respective warmest Junes on record.
The record comes amid increasing anxiety over the pace and scale of climate change. Surface air temperatures worldwide exceeded the 1.5C Paris agreement threshold in June for the first time, and stayed there for several days, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change.
In the north Atlantic ocean, sea surface temperatures have been about 0.5C higher than the previous warmest daily surface temperatures recorded in June. Warming water temperatures have led to mass deaths of fish in inland waterways.
Mark Owen, the Angling Trust’s head of fisheries, said the hot weather had already killed thousands of fish across the country.
Owen said: “Where I was this morning on a canal near Birmingham, fish were caught up against a lock and you saw hundreds of seagulls picking up the dead fish. The stench was really quite amazing.
“If July is like June, if August is like June, then we will get far more fish kills than we’ve ever seen. There is a knock-on effect. The fish are the visible bit because that’s what people see floating on the surface but it is also [about] what is happening to the ecosystem.”
In one case in West Yorkshire, people fishing have reported a stream of dead fish moving past."
Meltwater is hydro-fracking Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure
"A moulin is forming right in front of me on the Greenland ice sheet. Only this really shouldn’t be happening here – current scientific understanding doesn’t accommodate this reality.
... respond over millennia to strong-warming perturbations, leading to 👉sluggish sea level forecasts that are lulling policymakers into a false sense of security.👈"
"Professor #MichaelMann, from the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the #UniversityOfPennsylvania, claims that 👉local weather factors [1], climate change and reduced #Saharan dust [sand] are all helping drive the sudden increase in ocean heat.👈
The change is most noticeable in the #NorthAtlantic Ocean, 👉but other bodies of water are seeing marine heatwaves of their own.👈
...Africa...
satellite data shows that some #SurfaceWaters in the area are almost 👉4 degrees Celsius (about 7 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal👈 for this time of the year,..."
But the abnormal warming will affect much larger areas than the #NorthAtlantic:
“A warm Atlantic tends to have a lot of global influences.” (2)
Rock you like a #hurricane: "Some global consequences
👉The #Azores high has weakened and shifted southwest away from #Africa.👈
So those winds that typically pick up and transport #Saharan dust westward over the #NorthAtlantic are calmer and largely dust-free, says #MichaelMann,..." (2)
However, average ocean-surface temperatures of up to +5°C, as presently building up off the...
"Overall, there is almost no ice over four years old remaining—it now comprises just 3 percent of the total ice cover. This is the same percentage as last year and contrasts starkly with the late 1980s when 30 to 35 percent of the Arctic Ocean’s ice was older than 4 years."
...involved in the research into the #ClimateCrisis, as a tipping point could be reached quite soon because things are getting worse:
"The model projects the overturning circulation around #Antarctica will slow by more than 40% over the next three decades, driven almost entirely by pulses of #meltwater
Over the same period, our modelling also predicts a 20% weakening of the famous #NorthAtlantic overturning circulation which keeps #Europe’s...