Cooler weather in the past 2 years offered some relief to the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine, but it’s not expected to stay that way.

That’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest “State of the Ecosystem” report on New England’s waters, which was released online last week, and previously presented to the New England Fishery Management Council in April.

While the report found slightly cooler water temperatures in 2024 and 2025, the warming trend is expected to come back this fall and continue to rise long term due to climate change. Scientists attribute the trend to the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water up from the Gulf of Mexico, appearing to be getting stronger than in years past.

The gulf has already been subject to massive fluctuations in temperatures over the past 15 years, with a major marine heatwave around 2012 leading to the collapse of the northern shrimp fishery. These trends led scientists to publish a study in 2015 which found that the Gulf of Maine was warming faster than 99 percent of the ocean.

The new report from NOAA also found that some Maine fishing ports are also getting busier, likely driven by the high price of lobster, with towns like Stonington, Harpswell and Friendship reportedly seeing more activity nowadays than they did around 20 years ago.

But that too might not last, as scientists warn that due to rising temperatures, Maine’s iconic lobsters are expected to decline in population from now on. And while decreases in number have been offset by increases in value, experts still recommend fishermen and their communities diversify businesses to weather the warmer gulf in the future.

To read the original Maine Monitor article, click here.