AP quotes Runge in article on Gulf of Maine warming

The Associated Press quoted Jeffrey Runge, a research scientist in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, in an article about record warm temperatures in the Gulf of Maine. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than the majority of the world’s oceans — it has warmed at a rate of about 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 30 years, more than three times the global average, and more than seven times the global average in the past 15 years, according to the Associated Press. Temperatures above the 90th percentile have occurred for more than five consecutive days in the Gulf this year, which qualifies as a “marine heat wave.” There have been 10 daily temperature records this summer, and 18 this past winter, the article states. The Gulf of Maine is an important feeding ground for rare North Atlantic right whales, and warming impacts the availability of tiny organisms the whales feed on, which is a foreboding sign for the population. “There are very large, not regional, drivers for this change,” said Runge. “Until we work on the global drivers of warming, I don’t see any way to stop this.” The Portland Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, ABC News, Gloucester Daily Times and New Jersey Herald carried the AP article, and The Weather Company adapted the AP article.