Ocean temperatures soared to new 'pretty alarming' highs off Nova Scotia in 2022

Ocean temperatures off Nova Scotia hit record highs last summer, eclipsing the record-breaking temperatures set in the Atlantic a decade earlier.

"It's pretty alarming," said Fisheries and Oceans Canada research scientist Chantelle Layton.

Layton is part of the DFO team analyzing results from the annual Atlantic Ocean monitoring program in eastern Canada.

Canadian scientists are discussing the 2022 data this week.

On the Scotian Shelf, from the Cabot Strait off Cape Breton south to Georges Bank and into the Bay of Fundy, nine of 20 monitoring locations at different depths set records in 2022.

Temperatures were one to two degrees above the 30-year average.

At the greatest depths, temperatures from Halifax to Yarmouth averaged six to seven degrees — and around eight degrees in the Bay of Fundy.

"To see a change in the deep layers was probably the most significant change," said Layton.

"What was most important was the amount of warming that we saw consistently throughout the year, throughout all of our measurements and the fact that there was an absence of colder water at mid-depth."

Sampling did not detect the "cold intermediate layer," defined as 4 degrees C or less.

It is winter water that is trapped beneath less dense, warmer surface water and above the bottom. It plays a role in nutrient mixing and ecosystem productivity.

Portions of the eastern Scotian Shelf were not sampled. But everywhere that was, scientists did not find the cold intermediate layer.

"That was a first for us," said Layton.

"There was still cold water, but not as cold. It was about one degree warmer than normal."