14 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Georgia and South Carolina, the stream is many miles offshore. Off North 

 Carolina the shelf narrows again and there is a decided coastal prominence. 

 Together these bring the coast and Current into such proximity that the 

 latter is as near Cape Hatteras and Beaufort as it is to Cape Canaveral and 

 Daytona, Florida, respectively (Table 4 and Figure 2). 



TABLE 4 

 Approximate Mean Position of the Gulf Stream * 



Locality 



North of Habana, Cuba 

 Southeast of Key West, Fla. 

 East of Fowey Rocks, Fla. 

 East of Miami Beach, Fla. 

 East of Palm Beach, Fla. 

 East of Jupiter Inlet, Fla. 

 East of Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

 East of Daytona Beach, Fla. 

 East of Ormond Beach, Fla. 

 East of St. Augustine, Fla. (coast line) 

 East of Jacksonville, Fla. (coast Une) 

 Southeast of Savannah, Ga. (coast line) 

 Southeast of Charleston, S. C. (coast line) 

 Southeast of Myrtle Beach, S. C. 

 Southeast of Cape Fear, N. C. (light) 

 Southeast of Cape Lookout, N. C. (Hght) 

 Southeast of Cape Hatteras, N. C. 

 Southeast of Virginia Beach, Va. 

 Southeast of Atlantic City, N. J. 

 Southeast of Sandy Hook, N. J. 



* From U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Current Tables, Atlantic Coast, North America for 

 the Year 1947. 



To the northeast of Hatteras the Gulf Stream System, called the Gulf 

 Stream from here to a region east of Grand Bank (Iselin, 1936), continues as 

 a well defined and relatively narrow current. It increases in depth as it leaves 

 the Blake Plateau, but more important from the fisheries standpoint is the 

 fact that it leaves the continental shelf. There is, as a result, a water mass of 

 considerable depth between the Stream and the coastal waters over the shelf. 

 This slope water, as this intervening region is called, has varying currents 

 including eddy effects from the Gulf Stream. The water is somewhat similar 

 to that of the Stream but shows some seasonal variations in temperature and 

 salinity from the influence of the coastal waters and the climate. 



There has been considerable speculation linking the recent warm-phase in 

 our climate with a supposed shift in the course and transport of the Gulf 



