Lapointe said most ocean temperature readings are taken at the surface and may not fully reflect temperatures experienced by salmon deeper in the water. “We don’t really have the systematic sampling out there … don’t have the data to really answer the question you might want answered.”
A so-called “blob” of warm water identified in the North Pacific in the winter of 2013 and lasting into 2015 resulted in ocean temperatures in some areas of three degrees C above normal.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said that warm ocean conditions can cause a change in species of plankton, from high-nutrition northern types to low-nutrition southern types, while increasing the presence of warmer water predators.
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