PORTLAND, Maine — When Dave Reidmiller of the Climate Center at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland heard the news recently that the ocean had broken temperature records every day for the past year, even he—an expert on the subject—was taken aback.
"'Wow' was probably the first reaction," he said. "This was not great news. And secondly, we also kind of expected it. The science has been telling us now for a couple of decades that these trends are continuing."
What has surprised even the experts, though, is how quickly and dramatically ocean temperatures are rising.
"We’ve seen that long-term trend, certainly here in the Gulf of Maine, in the North Atlantic, and even globally," Reidmiller said. "But this year-on-year jump that we’ve seen from 2022 to 2023 which is now lasting into 2024 is truly extraordinary."
Human activity—specifically, the burning of fossil fuels—is making the planet warmer, both on land and in the ocean.
"It’s undeniable," Reidmiller said simply.
In January, when two storms just a few days apart caused millions of dollars worth of damage and destruction on the coast, Maine got a wake-up call about the impact of warming oceans and rising sea levels. It’s clear that Mainers will have to adapt to a new reality—and soon.
"We need to start to think," Reidmiller said, "about how we’re going to live on a coastline that’s going to be vastly different than the one we had before."