Latest news with #GulfOfStLawrence
CBC
a day ago
- General
- CBC
Right whale detection in Gulf will mean restrictions for some P.E.I. lobster boats
The P.E.I. Fishermen's Association says the sighting of a North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region will mean some lobster fishing crews on the North Shore will have to remove their gear. The affected boats will have to have their equipment out of the water by Sunday at 5 p.m. AT at the latest. Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the endangered whale had come close enough to the northern boundary of Lobster Fishing Area 24, off the west end of Prince Edward Island, to mean some parts of that region would have to be closed for 15 days in order to prevent the whale from becoming entangled in gear. "We did ask a few of the representatives from the area and they said that if there's any, there's very few in the area right now. So fingers crossed it's not affecting too many of our harvesters at this time," said Melanie Giffin, a marine biologist and program planner with the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association. A pilot project began this year to ease the impact of such closures on fishing boats during the relatively short spring lobster season, including an exemption for boats with whale-safe gear and a shorter closure period. But Giffin said the new protocols don't apply in this case because the water in the region is too deep. "There were some changes this year to some of the closures and some of the protocols, but all of those come into effect inside the 20-fathom line, and this is still outside the 20-fathom line," she said. The whale sighting is the first this year to affect any P.E.I. boats, Giffin said. "The last time we had a closure inside an LFA boundary was in 2023. I believe that forced fishers out of their fishing areas." Whale-safe gear in place The P.E.I. Fishermen's Association has nearly 1,300 members, of whom 800 had gotten whale-safe gear as of April. That kind of equipment, also known as low breaking strength gear, is designed to release under pressure of more than 1,700 pounds or 771 kilograms. "If that whale [had] caused a closure inside that 20-fathom line, then harvesters could actually continue to fish if they removed one buoy line and followed the rules for whale-safe gear," Giffin said. "It gives harvesters a little more opportunity to move gear around without overcrowding other areas as much." Fisheries and Oceans Canada's website says there are only 372 North American right whales remaining in the world's oceans. aerial and at-sea surveillance, or recorded with acoustic technologies."
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Science
- Globe and Mail
A moveable feast
This is the third story in a series on Canada-U.S. cross-border measures to protect North Atlantic right whales. Yards from Herring Cove Beach on a crisp day in late March, a young North Atlantic right whale grazes the surface of Cape Cod Bay's crystal-blue waters. As he glides, mouth agape, his fringelike baleen plates filter seawater so he can feast on small planktonic crustaceans called copepods. 'That's what we call mowing the lawn,' says Daniel Palacios, program director of the Right Whale Ecology Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass., describing the whale's skim-feeding behaviour as his team surveys from a boat. For more than eight decades, from winter through spring, these critically endangered whales have returned to feast on an abundance of zooplankton in Cape Cod Bay, which has been seasonally protected to limit fishing activity and vessel speeds since 2015. That includes this young male, identified only by the number #5245, and his family. Sea and air surveys show he first visited with his mother, Slalom (#1245), in 2022, just as she likely did with her mother, Wart (#1140). Every year, both Slalom and Wart would then guide their calves to the Bay of Fundy, which was once considered the northernmost limit of the right whales' typical geographical range. But in 2022, Slalom brought #5245 further north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence – a change that, when it began more than a decade earlier, cued attention to an increasingly urgent problem that still plagues researchers and policy-makers today. As #5245 and the other whales continue to head to colder feeding grounds in the coming weeks, where they all will go next is a mystery. Climate change is affecting ecosystems and changing the availability of their food in different areas, resulting in the species popping up in new spots. The consequences of the whales' shifting habitats are dire: Under threat from fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes, the dwindling North Atlantic right whale species – with a population of 372 – requires agile protections to survive. But if researchers can't find them, then policy-makers don't know where to put such measures in place. Every season, North Atlantic right whales travel hundreds of kilometres, facing these hazards along the way, including at their destinations – the critical ocean habitats where they feed, breed and care for their young. The United States is the exclusive winter calving grounds for the whales and prime winter and spring feeding grounds, while Canada is prime summer and fall feeding grounds. In both countries, there are a variety of protections, from seasonal closures to limits on fishing activity, vessel speed or routing – but the measures don't yet follow the whales wherever they go. For decades, researchers observed the whales feeding in the Gulf of Maine – spending January to May in Cape Cod Bay, the Gulf's southern extent, then migrating to the northern extent, the Bay of Fundy, from June to November. With both bays' tidal systems acting as nutrient pumps, cold water mixes with nutrients to create a rich soup that supports an abundance of zooplankton, providing the whales with the energy they need to survive. The Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming ocean regions in the world owing to climate change. But Cape Cod Bay has remained insulated from these broader ecosystem shifts, says Christy Hudak, a right whale researcher at the Center for Coastal Studies. Nowhere else in their geographic range are as many of the whales observed in one place; half the population was seen in the area between January and May. 'Water temperatures in Cape Cod Bay are not increasing as rapidly as in the northern Gulf of Maine. The zooplankton cyclic pattern remains stable, providing the right whales with a consistent food source, at least for now, compared to other historic habitats like the Bay of Fundy,' Ms. Hudak says. Since the mid-1970s, scientists have observed right whales returning annually to the Bay of Fundy, known for its vibrant palette of sunlight-reflecting blues, tidal-sediment browns and algae-rich greens, straddling New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine. It has served as a North Atlantic nursery ground for right whale mothers and calves and is home to Grand Manan Basin, a deep-water area that is one of the whales' critical habitats. But beginning in 2010, a decrease in Bay of Fundy right whale sightings concerned scientists. That period also marked the species' most recent peak at 483 whales, but the population then began to plummet. While their rise was part of a slow but steady recovery attributed to an international ban on whaling, their decline was still attributable to human causes, mostly vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements. The problem was researchers were struggling to locate them. 'We were always trailing behind the whales. It took us nearly five years to figure out they went to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and then the year when we went up there, then a bunch came back here [to the Bay of Fundy]. How do you explain that?' says Moira Brown, director of science at the Canadian Whale Institute in Campobello Island, N.B. In 2015, having surveyed areas of high plankton concentrations and similar oceanographic features to the whales' critical habitats, researchers discovered right whales in the Shediac Valley, located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence between the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick and the Magdalen Islands in Quebec. That discovery followed similar habitat changes. In 2014, scientists had observed fewer whales southwest of Nova Scotia in another critical habitat, Roseway Basin. Before that, researchers had identified the Gulf of Maine's Jordan Basin as a winter mating ground for right whales, but ahead of publishing their scientific paper in 2013, the whales had already abandoned the area, having emerged in a new winter and spring feeding area south of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Mass. 'We thought we had the mating ground identified in the central part of the Gulf of Maine. As soon as the paper got published, that's it, the whales didn't use it any more. I don't know how they read this stuff,' says Dr. Brown, who has a PhD in marine biology. The shift to the Gulf of St. Lawrence especially worried researchers because, in contrast to the protective measures established in the Bay of Fundy, none were yet implemented in the gulf. For example, in 2003 Transport Canada rerouted Bay of Fundy vessel traffic around the Grand Manan Basin, marking the first time in International Maritime Organization history that shipping lanes were moved to protect a marine mammal species. But the Gulf of St. Lawrence – a much busier seaway, dense with the world's largest cargo vessels and tankers – had no such measures. That situation came to a head in 2017, when North Atlantic right whales faced the worst die-off event recorded since researchers began tracking them in 1990. Seventeen deaths that year – most in Canadian waters, including half in the Gulf of St. Lawrence – prompted the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to declare an "Unusual Mortality Event" (UME). 'I give the whales a lot of credit for responding to a changing environment and finding food in all the wrong places. It has cost them their lives for some of them because there weren't any protection measures in place,' Dr. Brown says. Eight years on, the UME remains open, with 157 dead or injured whales – and that number continues to rise. Right whales also continue to surprise researchers with where they aggregate. Last summer, while fewer whales than usual were observed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, dozens were discovered in Hudson and Block Canyons, near busy New York-New Jersey shipping corridors and fishing areas. By late fall, dozens more lingered in the Bay of Fundy, up to a week before the Canadian commercial lobster fishery opened. Then, by early winter, unprecedented numbers aggregated in shipping and fishing areas around the Gulf of Maine's Jeffreys Ledge. Individual right whales have also astonished researchers by travelling beyond their known range. In 2018, male right whale Mogul (#3845) captivated scientists when he was sighted off the coast of Iceland and then off France the following year. This spring, a pair of female right whales, Koala (#3940) and Curlew (#4190), similarly caught researchers off guard when they were spotted off the Bahamas, after spending many weeks in the Gulf of Mexico. Sightings in the gulf are rare, and right whales had never before been documented in the Bahamas. Meanwhile, scientists have established that the species cannot sustain even one unnatural death, yet the whales continue to die from human causes faster than they can reproduce. Take for example the 10-year trajectory of five mother-calf pairs last known to have returned to the Bay of Fundy nursery in 2015 or 2016. 'Of the five mothers, three of those are either definitely or more than likely dead, and one of the calves – the lone female – is also dead," says Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium (NEAq) in Boston. Scars and marks on all five mothers, including survivors Clover (#1611), last seen in 2023, and Calvin (#2223), presumed dead until she was seen this spring after evading researchers for nearly three years, punctuate the plight of North Atlantic right whales, as do death and injury statistics. Eighty-eight per cent of documented right whale deaths are attributed to human interactions. Eighty-five per cent of the population has experienced fishing gear entanglement at some point in their lives. Most vessel-strike deaths and injuries go unseen or unreported. And just more than a third of all right whale mortalities are observed at all. Since industrialized whaling days, human-caused deaths have dramatically cut the lifespan of North Atlantic right whales short. According to a peer-reviewed paper in Science Advances, while southern right whales – the Southern Hemisphere 'cousins' of North Atlantic right whales – have a median lifespan of 74 years and can live past 130, North Atlantic right whales have a median life expectancy of 22 years, rarely surviving past 45. 'Quite frankly, I'm amazed there are any right whales. But what keeps us going? Because we think we can, and this species is clearly responding to what they need to exist,' says Dr. Brown. 'This population did grow to almost 500 whales, and then climate change came along, habitat shift came along. It really looks like if we could stop killing these whales, they could probably claw their way back. They've been hanging on by their flipper-tips for tens of decades.' Canada's decisive response to the die-off event eight years ago is the dynamic policy effort North Atlantic right whales need for a fighting chance, says Sean Brillant, senior conservation biologist at the Canadian Wildlife Federation in Halifax. 'Up to that point, Canada had not made a lot of progress. It wasn't until 2017 when suddenly things started moving, and we've been working in this direction ever since,' Mr. Brillant says. To reduce vessel strikes, Transport Canada issued an emergency slowdown – first voluntary, then mandatory – for ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To mitigate entanglements, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) shut down fisheries early or did not allow them to open at all, particularly those using vertical-buoy lines (VBLs), which anchor surface markers by vertical rope to bottom-fishing gear. The Canadian government continues to rely on an adaptive management approach, annually adjusting vessel-strike and entanglement mitigation measures, enhancing monitoring and enforcement, including investigating and fining non-compliant cases; and developing longer-term strategies such as DFO's Whalesafe Gear strategy, forthcoming this year. 'In the United States, such flexibility is largely absent due to poorly enforced laws and legally mandated provisions for multi-step public review of any possible actions, which can result in years of deliberation, frequent challenges in court, and dependence on judicial precedent,' writes Michael J. Moore, a veterinary scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in his 2021 book, We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility. That still holds true today, says Dr. Moore, speaking to The Globe and Mail. For example, in 2022, NOAA proposed extending its vessel-speed rule for ships over 65 feet in length to include vessels over 35 feet. The goal was to maintain a maximum speed of 10 knots in right whale seasonal management areas. However, this proposal faced strong opposition from mariners and lawmakers. In July, 2024, 54 Congressional legislators succeeded in urging the Biden government to reopen the rule for further input. By September, a bill approved by the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources delayed new speed limits until 2030. In January, days before the new Trump administration took office, NOAA withdrew the proposed rule altogether. 'We were trying to get a more scientifically sound and more effective vessel speed rule put in place in the last six months of the previous administration and just could not get it over the finish line,' says Dr. Rick Spinrad, the former NOAA administrator, a presidentially appointed role he left in January when the new U.S. administration took office. On Donald Trump's first day in the White House, he signed an executive order to pause NOAA spending on tens of millions of dollars allocated for right whale recovery efforts under the Inflation Reduction Act, once lauded as the U.S. government's largest investment in climate and conservation. In February, another executive order led to NOAA disbanding its expert advisories, including its Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, which was established in 1971 and among its many functions included evaluating processes for the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. That same month, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, began laying off hundreds of NOAA staff. Just as the Commander-in-Chief and Capitol can stall decisions, so too can court challenges. After NOAA extended its seasonal closure, banning VBL fishing to protect right whales off the Massachusetts coast in 2023, the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association sued the federal department early the next year. In March, 2024, a U.S. District Court sided with the fishers, forcing NOAA to lift its February to April annual closure. However, in January, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, restoring the closure. Pitting conservation efforts against commercial efforts is one of the pervasive problems, says Dr. Moore. 'It's a total conflict of interest. That's certainly true of NOAA, which is supposed to be conserving the industry and the species – how can you do both? One way is acoustic retrieval of traps in areas seasonally closed to vertical lines to prevent entanglement, allowing whales and trap fishing to co-exist,' says Dr. Moore. In Canada, DFO has the same conflict, as evidenced by the fisheries minister's decision last spring to walk-back closures when faced with industry opposition. In May, 2024, following DFO's announcement of a new Lobster Fishing Area closure because of a right whale sighting off the northeast coast of New Brunswick, east of Miscou Island, protests erupted with representation from the Maritime Lobstermen's Union and federal politicians, who argued the closure would have amounted to a crisis, forcing hundreds of lobstermen to remove tens of thousands of traps. That same day, after what the department says was a reassessment of its own data on where the right whale was sighted, DFO overturned its own closure. 'What have we learned? Progress in right whale conservation is a slow, endless, and incredibly frustrating process of trying to stay ahead of a moving target,' says Dr. Moore. Even measuring progress can be a frustrating task. On the surface, the decline in right whale deaths in the Gulf of St. Lawrence signals Canadian efforts are working – while 40 per cent of the 41 right whale deaths since 2017 have occurred in the St. Lawrence, none have been recorded there since 2019, and one death has been observed in Canadian waters since 2020. The latest population estimate, released in October, also shows the number levelling out after more than a decade of decline. But Dr. Moore cautions against relying on 'body counts' and says the real proof is not in the population estimate, but the population health. About one-third of the population is injured, while 10 per cent are so severely injured they are unlikely to live. The population's high injury rate is also stunting the whales' growth. Since 1981, researchers have observed the whales' body lengths are decreasing, in turn limiting reproduction and making subsequent entanglements more lethal because smaller whales struggle more to break free from gear. 'While the whales may be adapting to a rapidly changing environment, the continued high level of mortality and serious injury clearly shows we must continue to adapt and evolve our management,' says Mr. Hamilton, the senior scientist at NEAq. Adaptation requires Canada and U.S. leadership, says Heather Pettis, a research scientist at the aquarium. 'In order to protect this species effectively, you've got to manage throughout the range, broadly, and in both countries,' says Ms. Pettis. What works particularly well is when each country learns from one another, ratcheting up each other's progress, says Dr. Spinrad, the former NOAA administrator. History provides several examples. The U.S. listed right whales under the Endangered Species Act in 1973 – more than 30 years before Canada's listing decision under the Species At Risk Act. Similarly, in 2016, import provisions under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, which is unique to the U.S., started requiring countries that export seafood to the U.S., including Canada, to demonstrate that commercial fishing practices do not kill or seriously injure marine mammals beyond U.S. standards. And the U.S. government's 2017 UME investigation catapulted Canada into action and clearly defined collective impact. As #5245 and the other whales migrate into Canadian waters for the summer, researchers on both sides of the border will continue to monitor vast expanses of ocean by air and boat in search of these elusive and endangered creatures. This survey work includes the Bay of Fundy, where last year the Canadian Whale Institute (CWI) launched a renewed effort to increase research presence on the water since the whales' 2010 decline. 'If we don't look, we won't know. We need negative data to be able to say they're not there. They're really hard to see in this area, especially if they're not in dense aggregations,' says Delphine Durette-Morin, a right whale researcher at the CWI. 'Even if you don't see a target species, it's still negative data,' she adds, pointing out that even with the whales' shift in habitat since 2010, they have continued to be detected every year in the Bay of Fundy. Canadian researchers report observing about 40 per cent of the right whale population each year in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the absence of the remaining 60 per cent can still provide valuable insights into the whales' whereabouts. Meanwhile, as Dr. Brown approaches retirement, she finds herself grappling with the same fundamental questions. 'I'll be damned if the same questions don't still exist 40 years later: Where's the second summer nursery? Because not all the calves come to the Bay of Fundy, and not all the calves go to the Gulf of St Lawrence. Where's the mating ground? And where's the wintering ground?' she says. However, finding answers is only half the battle of the whales' plight; the other half lies in policy-makers on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border then protecting them wherever they appear. This story is part of a series produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting Network. To keep eyes on North Atlantic right whales, scientists must first tackle perennial issues of plane safety Can motherhood help North Atlantic right whales to rise again?
CBC
26-05-2025
- CBC
Viking culture finds new life as Vinland Society of P.E.I. returns from 5-year hiatus
Prince Edward Islanders had the chance to step back in time and explore Viking traditions, and learn how some of that history might be tied to this province. An event held Sunday evening at the Beaconsfield Carriage House in Charlottetown was hosted by the Vinland Society of P.E.I. The group, which promotes cultural ties between Iceland and the Island and celebrates Viking culture, returned this month after a five-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Viking lore describes Vinland as a fertile area in the Gulf of St. Lawrence filled with grapevines and beech trees, and it could very well have been P.E.I., said society president Megan Macdonald. Macdonald said Viking history sparks curiosity and a sense of adventure that resonates deeply with Islanders. "Prince Edward Islanders understand the notion of people travelling on the ocean and coming to our shores, or the idea that we could get in a boat and go to a faraway place, that we are connected to by water," she told CBC News. "People find the idea of Vikings exciting, adventurous, out of the ordinary and it sparks curiosity about what we could possibly find." Viking boats, then and now At the event, society member Kevin Jeffrey gave a presentation about Viking boats and how their designs have influenced modern vessels. Jeffrey, a lifelong Viking enthusiast, said school art projects and movies spurred his fascination as a child. "I felt my whole life, you know, I must have been a Viking in the past somewhere, and I do have a little bit of Norwegian blood," he said. Today, Jeffrey owns NorseBoat Ltd., a business in Flat River, P.E.I., that builds modern boats inspired by Viking traditions. Sunday, he brought one of his hand-crafted Norse boats to the event for attendees to view up close. Jeffrey said Viking boats were narrow, fast and versatile, capable of being sailed and rowed. Their distinctive double-ended shape allowed them to sail in both directions, much like the ferries that run across the Northumberland Strait between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia. Norse boats were made with what's called clinker-built or lapstrake design characterized by overlapping planks on the hull. "It's a very beautiful look, a classic look, and I wanted to make sure that I had that as the signature of the boats," he said. The boats are built for adventure, and can be sailed, rowed and even used for camping. Each boat can hold up to six people but can still be operated by one person. They're compact enough to fit in a garage, can be towed by a modest-sized car, and feature a lightweight carbon-fibre mast that's easy to set up. "It just conjures up for people that are thinking about buying a boat that they could do adventurous things in a small boat." He added that Vikings travelled across the Atlantic by island-hopping from Norway to the Shetland Islands, then to the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and finally to Newfoundland and Labrador.
CTV News
23-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
2024 sees record warm temperatures, less sea ice cover in Gulf of St. Lawrence
Boats make their way through the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, March 25, 2006. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press) Last year, the Gulf of St. Lawrence recorded its highest maximum surface temperature and lowest seasonal volume of ice cover in decades, say researchers with the federal Fisheries Department. Surface temperatures and ice cover are directly related to air temperature, said Peter Galbraith, a research scientist in physical oceanography at the agency's Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Que., northeast of Quebec City. Last July, the surface temperature hit 16.7 C, a record since data started being recorded in 1981, and 2.4 C warmer than average. Between May and November, the warmest surface temperature was 11.6 C, also a record, and 1.6 C higher than average. 'So it was the warmest air temperature, which gave us the warmest sea surface temperature,' Galbraith said. The findings were presented at a briefing Friday on the state of the Gulf of St-Lawrence, with scientists presenting data from studies conducted last year on the marine environment. Aside from having the highest surface temperature in 2024, the Gulf of St. Lawrence also recorded the lowest seasonal ice cover since 1969. Sea ice is linked to winter air temperature between December and March. In the winter of 2023-24, the volume of ice cover was six cubic kilometres, compared to 14 cubic kilometres in the winter of 2024-25. The two winters are among the seven winters since 1969 that saw almost no sea ice. 'So our winters are warming quite a lot faster than the rest of the year, which is going to lead to more frequent years with very low sea ice cover in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,' Galbraith said. But the shift in temperatures is not linear. The last four years have been warmer than average, but so far this year, temperatures are closer to the average in April and May. 'So we might not have (a) hugely warm summer, we can't expect with climate change to have year after year after year of really, really hot,' Galbraith said. 'There's going to be some interannual variability, so we have to manage these expectations.' Effects on wildlife One species having to contend with the sea ice is the Northwest Atlantic harp seal. Joanie Van de Walle, a specialist in population dynamics with the Fisheries Department, said the seals are dependent on quality ice. Harp seals track the edge of the ice because that's where they find their preferred food, but it's also where they reproduce, give birth, and where young pups develop. The gulf herd breeds near the Iles-de-la-Madeleine in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. When ice is limited, as it was in 2024 in the gulf, it was not considered a successful reproductive year. Some pups were abandoned by females because the ice drifted. 'Sometimes there is ice, but the ice is not of good enough quality, but some females still (give birth) in those conditions and that's when we see the most important impacts because the ice can break and that can lead to the drowning of the pups,' Van de Walle said. 'In years where there is very poor ice, we see massive mortality events for the pups.' Galbraith said projecting in the future, it's possible the gulf won't have any sea ice 75 or 100 years down the line, with the occasional cold polar vortex creating a rare ice event. If there's no ice, Harp seals may eventually move to other habitats where better ice exists, Van de Walle said. 'And in that case it would be probably even better for the stock because there they could encounter better conditions to give birth, but also to nurse and produce viable pups,' she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025. The Canadian Press
CBC
23-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
2024 sees record warm temperatures, less sea ice cover in Gulf of St. Lawrence
Last year, the Gulf of St. Lawrence recorded its highest maximum surface temperature and lowest seasonal volume of ice cover in decades, say researchers with the federal Fisheries Department. Surface temperatures and ice cover are directly related to air temperature, said Peter Galbraith, a research scientist in physical oceanography at the agency's Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Que., northeast of Quebec City. Last July, the surface temperature hit 16.7 C, a record since data started being recorded in 1981, and 2.4 C warmer than average. Between May and November, the warmest surface temperature was 11.6 C, also a record, and 1.6 C higher than average. "So it was the warmest air temperature, which gave us the warmest sea surface temperature," Galbraith said. The findings were presented at a briefing Friday on the state of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with scientists presenting data from studies conducted last year on the marine environment. Aside from having the highest surface temperature in 2024, the Gulf of St. Lawrence also recorded the lowest seasonal ice cover since 1969. Sea ice is linked to winter air temperature between December and March. In the winter of 2023-24, the volume of ice cover was six cubic kilometres, compared to 14 cubic kilometres in the winter of 2024-25. The two winters are among the seven winters since 1969 that saw almost no sea ice. "So our winters are warming quite a lot faster than the rest of the year, which is going to lead to more frequent years with very low sea ice cover in the Gulf of St. Lawrence," Galbraith said. But the shift in temperatures is not linear. The last four years have been warmer than average, but so far this year, temperatures are closer to the average in April and May. "So we might not have [a] hugely warm summer, we can't expect with climate change to have year after year after year of really, really hot," Galbraith said. "There's going to be some interannual variability, so we have to manage these expectations." One species having to contend with the sea ice is the Northwest Atlantic harp seal. Joanie Van de Walle, a specialist in population dynamics with the Fisheries Department, said the seals are dependent on quality ice. Harp seals track the edge of the ice because that's where they find their preferred food, but it's also where they reproduce, give birth and where young pups develop. The gulf herd breeds near the Iles-de-la-Madeleine in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. When ice is limited, as it was in 2024 in the gulf, it was not considered a successful reproductive year. Some pups were abandoned by females because the ice drifted. "Sometimes there is ice, but the ice is not of good enough quality, but some females still [give birth] in those conditions and that's when we see the most important impacts because the ice can break and that can lead to the drowning of the pups," Van de Walle said. "In years where there is very poor ice, we see massive mortality events for the pups." Galbraith said projecting in the future, it's possible the gulf won't have any sea ice 75 or 100 years down the line, with the occasional cold polar vortex creating a rare ice event. If there's no ice, Harp seals may eventually move to other habitats where better ice exists, Van de Walle said. "And in that case it would be probably even better for the stock because there they could encounter better conditions to give birth, but also to nurse and produce viable pups," she said.
