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Gulfstream Upwelling

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Kim Eslinger

New Member
Apr 16, 2003
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The water here of Daytona Beach has been steadily plummeting from the upper seventies into (now) the mid forties offshore. According to diver reports the red-green murk on the bottom only continue to get worse and the fish are being killed by the cold. Does anyone have a clue what causes these so called "Gulf stream upwellings"? I know they are common here for a couple of weeks during the summer every year, but this has been going on since early June - far longer than anyone in the area is accustomed too. I'm just curious to see if this happens elsewhere and is anyone knows what causes it?
 
Interesting but that just so happens to coincide with the long-lived heatwave that we are experiencing on this side of the pond..... Connection?
 
I don't know. I would imagine they must be related, but no one here seems to really know what causes the problem. I know it is working its way up the eastern seaboard. Perhaps the Gulf is driving all the warmer water your direction?
 
Hot Waters

Possible I guess.... the water temps off the cast of Spain and even in the north of Germany are the warmest in ages. They are worried now about an explosion of jellyfish since the water is so warm. I have heard/read that it is 30° C in some places (over 80°F) where the temps are normally in the 24-27° range.....
 
Its should be 30C here and we are far below that. We have lost all of our moray eels, most of the tropical species of fish, and just about everything else. Even our snapper are coming within the top 3 meters to feed b/c the water below is too cold for them. I haven't seen a decent explanation yet for what is causing the upwelling from the deeper water.
 
Verrrry interesting. Strange thing here in Kona too. The water cooled off last fall to 24(75F) and stayed there all winter. Now it is 25 and has been stuck there for months. More huge fish, by line fishermen, than in the last ten years. Strange happenings.
Aloha
Bill
 
...Strange waters

Hmmm, this is interesting.
--We are having unusually warm water temps, even by summer standards. So far, it has gone up to 72F; then we had a drop of about 10 degrees for 3-4 days, with very quiet surf and minimal swell.
Now, with the temp up again, the Murk that is mentioned on another thread has everyone talking about the green waters here.
Kelp is also looking sickly, like another die-off is in process.
--I'm sure this all makes sense if one knows how to 'read' the signs and symptoms.
--Anyone out there know of a website that might explain what's going on?
--By the way, I hope Jay Styron and others in North Carolina are drying out after the deluge...they had 4 inches of rain in one day!
Kim, I'm going to look up Gulf Stream Upwellings... thanks for describing what is going on in your neighborhood.

Post Script: Checked Earth Observatory/NASA and found a bit of info about warming trends; Local news here just announced we may have a 'La Nina' condition. Will look further....and report back.
 
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Okay guys, here's the link I follow to watch the water in real time but there is no interpretation of what is happening:

http://www.marine.rutgers.edu/mrs/newevery.florida.html

They pull the satellite feed to look at water temp. It appears to still be dropping further offshore.

As for Jay and the boys - they have been blown out far moret han any of us would like. We were blown out three days in the first week, and after I left they spent most of last week blown out. Sounds like things aren't looking up weather wise. But in a fun bit of news Jay and the crew did get to rescue Mike Barnette and team after their dive on the USS Virginia when the seas kicked up and their boat malfunctioned. BTW - Jay's playing with his new kite board in the off hours so he's probably not minding the wind and rain too much. ;)
 
Sounds like you guys are going to have to get used to wearing dry suites from now on then!!!!!!:D
 
Hi there, Kim!
Thanks for the link!
---And the news about the weather ;)
(Great quote; where's it from?)



"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
 
Thanks for the website Kim, pretty amazing temperatures. To add a little more information, Bimini Gulf Stream (in the Bahamas) felt about normal in June and July, Same for Andros, but the north end of Long Island (about 300 miles SE, on the eastern edge of the Bahamas) was a lot colder than normal in July. We had no thermometer, but I would estimate 6-7 degrees F. below normal.
 
Interesting news gang. I don't get it. We have more dead sea life than you can shake a stick at and now we have juvie hammerheads washing ashore. Its just depressing.

OceanSwimmer - the quote is mine - from something I wrote.

Now we have a "tropical wave" (don't even ask what the heck that is - I don't know) over head and its crashing right into the icy water. Should be interesting to see what happens!
 
Originally posted by Kim Eslinger
Dry suits in florida are for wimps. ;) I only dive dry in Maine! =) (Its too hard to pee!)

I can guess from that you have never dived in stoney in march then. 4C water temp Even a dry suite was not good enough:)
 
One possible cause could be P.D.O. This was discovered by someone at the University of Washington a few years ago while studying salmon migration in the pacific. It stands for Pacific Decadal Oscillation. It was discovered when sea surface temps were studied back 100 years. It seems the El Nino & El Nina weather patterns are only the small cycles within the BIG cycles. They were predicting 10-30 years of colder and wetter winters not unlike what we experienced between 1945-1976. I have been telling everyone here at work for the past couple of years that colder winters are ahead. They thought I was crazy to buy a snowblower when we had mild winters for the past 12-15 years here in the North East. (NJ). But the past 2 winters, I've needed it more than ever, and I believe it has not fully set in yet. I realize weather in one part of the country, or world, sometimes means opposite weather patterns elsewhere, but my point is, there are big long-term cycles occuring that may be having effects.

I hope someone can make sense of the puzzle.

Jim
 
Jim,

I was at Laguna last night dipping my feet in our "subject". I can verify that it was surprisingly cold, although the kids didn't seem to mind a bit.

Not sure I have much insight into this upwelling business, but I plan to dive my butt off over the next 10 or 11 days to see if I can learn more ;). "Science is a harsh mistress"

I'll post pictures on EastCoastFreediver and/or EastCoastFreediverMovies over the next few days.
 
Oops, just read the title of the thread and noticed that you were talking about the East coast. It seems that So Cal is going through a cold snap too, so I assumed that you were talking about that.

Still, I plan to investigate to the extent possible:D.
 
...Topic...

Actually, Pez, I presumed we were all chiming in with the unusual temperatures we are feeling everywhere...so I think the topic 'drifted' a bit. Hope nobody minds!?
--I'm going to see what the conditions are here today.
Jersey Jim: -- I noticed the Pacific Decadal Ocillation topic as well on Google. Thanks for the input. It will be interesting to see how this affects the behavior of gamefish.

Bill, what's happening in Hawaii!?
 
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