Effects of warmer Atlantic Ocean now being felt in northern Manitoba, experts say
CBC
The warming climate is causing renewed concern in northern Manitoba, as a marine heat wave that hit the Atlantic Ocean last summer could lead to Manitoba's northern port having one of the earliest ice-free dates on record.
"I've been working up here for 40 years now and it's noticeable just how much that things have changed," said Andrew Derocher, a biological sciences professor with the University of Alberta who works in Churchill, Man., on the shore of Hudson Bay.
"This has been an unusual year," he said. "The ice has been quite light for large parts of the winter period. It was a bit slow to form, and we had some very warm water in Hudson Bay in 2023."
Data from Polar Bears International, an advocacy and research group, shows southern Hudson Bay has been losing five days of sea ice cover per decade. The ice breakup date has also come earlier every year since 2020.
Last year, the ice on southern Hudson Bay broke up on June 25.
Sea ice data showed open water in parts of Hudson Bay as early as mid-April this year.
Though the full spring breakup hasn't happened yet, all signs point to an earlier breakup this year. Exactly when that happens, and its impacts, remain to be seen.
Unprecedented sea temperatures off the Atlantic coast last summer led to a warmer ocean and fewer icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador this year.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada previously said sea surface temperatures last summer measured almost seven degrees above normal in the Atlantic — the highest temperatures measured since 1982.
Derocher said the effects of that warmer ocean water are now being felt in northern Manitoba.
"It's really quite clear that there are large areas of quite thin ice," he said. "It's not the best habitat for seals, and it's not the best habitat for bears."
Alex Crawford is an assistant professor in the department of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba.
He is currently studying the region's ecosystem and the impacts of a marine heat wave — a period of unusually warm temperatures in the ocean, generally defined as five or more consecutive days when surface waters are in the uppermost 10 per cent of historical temperatures.
"We are set up to have a really, really potentially bad year" due to the Atlantic heat wave, said Crawford.
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