The Big Apple has become a hotspot for new marine life.
A southern warm-water fish has made the Big Apple its new home. That's because rising temperatures are attracting marine life that is used to calmer conditions. According to a new study.
The giant cube-like fish, which resembles the tropical sea mahi, have been seen gentrifying aquatic areas like Jamaica Bay, where long-time resident flounder and mackerel seek cooler areas. I'm leaving.
“Ultimately, we will end up with a fish community similar to what we have in the Chesapeake Bay today,” John Waldman, a biology professor and study co-author, told the Post.
“I can't believe the changes in my life.”
The first-of-its-kind study is considered the largest effort to date to understand how Jamaica Bay fish responded to rising water temperatures and other climate changes.
Waldman, along with former biology professor Jose D. Anado, assessed changes in fish species from 1989 to 2017 in the Brooklyn-Queens Bay, which has experienced higher temperatures than any other region in the world.
New York's summer water temperatures have risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit in just 20 years, Waldman said, a difference five times greater than the 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit rise in global upper ocean temperatures per decade.
This means Jamaica Bay has turned into a warm hotspot that attracts things like the cubia, a giant Gulf of Mexico species that until recently wasn't found in the Big Apple.
With the population having soared so much, fishing expeditions are turning their attention to the kubia, which is known to be as delicious as its more famous relative, the mahi-mahi.
Redfish, black drum and small skilletfish have also invaded Jamaica Bay in recent years.
“Suddenly they were everywhere,” Waldman said.
But the same warm weather that lures newbies to Big Apple waters is driving out older fish.
White bass, whiting and mackerel are just some of the species that have become harder to find in the outer bays, as well as various types of flounder, which Waldman says are on the verge of extinction. Previously, it was considered a “major fishery species.'' .
“Fishermen fish intensively in spring and autumn for this delicious flounder. Now it is rarely seen,” explained the expert on human impact on fish populations.
The Big Apple-based study highlights a larger global trend of fish moving north and into deeper oceans as their habitat gradually changes to warmer climates.
Two significant increases in water temperatures, in 1999 and 2012, and an expected increase in water temperatures this year, have further exacerbated the migration.
Researchers at Queen's University discovered this surprising change using nearly 1 million specimens collected over the past 28 years.
At the same time each fall, scientists scan the shallow waters of Jamaica Bay to assess fish populations and compare changes.
The data confirms alarm bells that fishermen have been ringing for years, and scientists warn that unless global climate change is brought under control, there is no hope of reversing northward migration trends. are.
“There's no question that we won't see a turnaround in our lifetime where the water suddenly gets colder,” Waldman said.
“It's not necessarily a tragic thing. It's just one of the consequences of this global change that we're imposing.”
