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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



meters) than on August 21, 1912, or on August 13, 

 1913, and between 3° and 8° higher than on August 

 5, 1923, a summer following a very cold winter. 

 Temperature conditions were similar in the lower 

 part of the Bay of Fundy, where readings of 12.5° 

 C. (54.5° F.) at 25 meters and 12.3° C. (54.2° F.) 

 at 75 meters for September 1953 contrast with 

 September averages of 10.7° C. (51.2° F.) and 9.7° 

 C. (49.4° F.) at these same depths for the period 

 1921-42.3 



Table 13. — Water temperatures near Mount Desert Island 

 in August 1953 and in earlier years 



[Area C, flg. 16. Temperature in °F.] 



In the central and eastern parts of the Gulf, 

 however, it was only in the underlying water 

 layers that August-September temperatures were 

 consistently higher in 1953 than in the earher 

 years of record, and even so, they varied consider- 

 ably according to locality. Thus the surface in 

 the central part of the basin (area D, fig. 16; 

 table 14) averaged about 1° colder (3 stations) on 

 September 6, 1953, than on August 23,' 1914; 

 whereas the underlying strata, to the greatest 

 depth sampled, were 2.3° to 5.6° warmer in 1953 

 than in 1914. The situation was similar to the 

 northward in the neighborhood of Mount Desert 

 Rock (area E, fig. 16; table 15), where the readings 

 at 40-150 meters were between 1° and 4.8° 

 warmer on the average on August 16, 1953, than 

 in any previous August of record, but where a 



Table 14.^ — Temperatures in central part of basin in August 

 1914 and in September 1953 



> 3 stations. 



' Information supplied by letter by Dr. A. H. Lelm, Director, Atlantic 

 Biological Station, St. Andrews, N. B., (or Prince station 6, midway between 

 Campobello Island and The Wolves. 



recorded range of about 2.5° from year to year in 

 the surface temperature was perhaps no wider 

 than might be expected from one day to the next, 

 from one stage of the tide to another, or within a 

 short distance, in this region of strong tidal 

 currents. 



Table 15. — Water temperatures off Mount Desert Rock 

 in August 1953 and in earlier years 



' Readings scaled from vertical graph for this station. 



' Readings scaled in part from vertical graph for this station. 



In the eastern side of the basin, near the Nova 

 Scotian slope (area F, fig. 16; table 16), the read- 

 ings for 1953 were 1.4° to 4.0° higher than the 

 combined means for 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, and 

 1926, for the water column as a whole. But the 

 surface was slightly the warmest in 1914, the 

 25-40 meter stratum of nearly the same temper- 

 ature in 1953 as in 1913, and the bottom water 

 at 220 meters of nearly the same temperature in 

 1953 as in 1912. It is doubtful, also, whether the 

 differences between the readings for August 18, 

 1953, and those for July 23, 1914, and August 9, 

 1926, are indicative of any general periodic trend 

 for the southeastern part of the basin, near the 

 source of the indrafts of slope water (area G, fig. 

 16; table 17). While the 100- to 150-meter 

 stratum was warmer in 1953 than in 1926 and the 

 20- to 40-meter stratum was 3.6° to 4.1° colder 

 in that summer than in 1926, the bottom stratum 

 was some 2° to 3° warmer in 1914 than in either 

 1926 or 1953. 



Table 16. — Water temperatures in eastern side of basin 

 in August 1953 and in earlier years 



' Scaled from vertical graph for this station. 



