Too *much* Ice blocks Iceland fish supply

[Cort Haus]

FISH merchants on the Humber may be throwing up their hands in frustration at the worrying decline in fish supplies from Iceland since the beginning of the year. But the underlying cause is something they would never have guessed at - a massive deep freeze around the west coast of the country.

While the rest of the world shudders at the prospect of global warming and all that it threatens to bring in the form of floods and soaring temperatures, Iceland has been bucking the trend - and it is having a dramatic effect on fishing activity around the island.

Thick packs of ice, which have not been seen for almost 40 years, have been moving into the western fjords across some of the best fishing grounds, followed by bitter winds and plummeting temperatures. The ice has proved to be a serious handicap (not to mention a shipping hazard) for fishermen who supply the Humber and other important centres in Western Europe, simply because they have been unable to put to sea. This has led to a marked drop in catches, a fact that has been noticed on the markets of Grimsby and Hull since they re-opened after Christmas.

Communities living around the fjord of Dryafjordur, have noticed that their inlets have been filled with ice in recent weeks - ice drifting in from Greenland and carrying dozens of polar bears on their floes.

When chunks break off the bears become stranded, drifting helplessly on the floes. There have been a number of stories of bears making land around Iceland and having to be shot because they pose a danger to humans and livestock.

The return of pack ice to Iceland goes against all the forecasts of doom of global warming, although some forecasters think it may just be a climatic aberration.

FishUpdate.com

[Last Conformist]

Ah! So it's the Icelanders stealing our cold!

[Dinner]

More likely it is all that cold fresh water coming off of the melting glaciers in Greenland which is to blame. Or at least that would be my guess.

[Flubber]

la lalalallalala

It getting tiring hearing about the latest localized weather event being mentioned as if it was proof of something either for or against global warming.


In my home town the harbour has frozen over just twice in the last 40 years-- about 34 years ago and again about 10 years ago. What does it mean ? Who the hell knows other than weather is variable and will have peaks in various phenomenon.

The key is to find longer range patterns if you folks want to prove anything.

Oh and this year being the warmest in a decade doesn't prove much. Global climate has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years and has to analyzed on that basis.

Oh and a random somewhat meaningless fact. Companies drilling north of the treeline in Canada have encountered wood . . . This indicates at some time there were trees in locations where they do not now grow. What does it mean ?? Danged if a know but notrthern forests would indicate to me taht the weather there must have been warmer at some point

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Oerdin
More likely it is all that cold fresh water coming off of the melting glaciers in Greenland which is to blame. Or at least that would be my guess.

That could be ( global warming models I have seen have predicted that some places get colder with increased cold waters off their coasts).

It could also be a normal thing that will happen there every so often due to random variations in the weather ( and every so often could be once every 1500 years )

[Victor Galis]

Well... the article itself talks about how they have increased volume of ice floes from Greenland. Combined with the articles on Global Warming saying Greenland is losing its ice faster than we thought before, it doesn't take a rocket scientist climatologist to figure out what's going on here

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
Well... the article itself talks about how they have increased volume of ice floes from Greenland. Combined with the articles on Global Warming saying Greenland is losing its ice faster than we thought before, it doesn't take a rocket scientist climatologist to figure out what's going on here

Then my question is what cause the similar thick ice pack off Iceland 40 years ago?

[Flubber]

Its the as if my hometown had its harbor freeze this year for the THIRD time in 40 years. That could be climate change and it could just be within the more extreme parts of the normal range for weather

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Flubber



Then my question is what cause the similar thick ice pack off Iceland 40 years ago?

I would imagine that if the world were really cold, there would also be lots of ice comming from Greenland, only difference being that when the weather is cold enough the ice is replaced. I mean during the Ice Age, if I'm not mistaken, the ice sheet connected Greenland and Iceland.

Of course then your question is why is there no ice at intermediate temperatures:

To which I say there's probably two factors I can personally identify (I'm sure climatologists have dozens.).

Colder water makes the ice not melt (which is why small ammounts of ice would be enough to reach Greenland when it was colder), warmer temperatures makes more ice melt and fall off Greenland. There might be an intermediate temperature at which the ice on Greenland doesn't melt very fast, but the ocean temperature is high enough to melt it before it reaches Iceland.

Alternatively, I may be completely off and it may have everything to do with ocean currents.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Flubber
Its the as if my hometown had its harbor freeze this year for the THIRD time in 40 years. That could be climate change and it could just be within the more extreme parts of the normal range for weather

That's true. The OP just said there was a lot of ice off the west coast of Iceland and I was trying to think where the ice could come from. The Greenland Ice Sheet was the obvious choice.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Oerdin


That's true. The OP just said there was a lot of ice off the west coast of Iceland and I was trying to think where the ice could come from. The Greenland Ice Sheet was the obvious choice.

Hence the polar bears

Communities living around the fjord of Dryafjordur, have noticed that their inlets have been filled with ice in recent weeks - ice drifting in from Greenland and carrying dozens of polar bears on their floes.

[Dinner]

Good times.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Victor Galis


I would imagine that if the world were really cold, there would also be lots of ice comming from Greenland, only difference being that when the weather is cold enough the ice is replaced. I mean during the Ice Age, if I'm not mistaken, the ice sheet connected Greenland and Iceland.

.

But we are talking 40 years ago not 400 or 4000. the appearance of ice off this coast is an unusual happening but not something that has Never been experienced. I also don't accept that the world was "really cold" 40 years ago.

I do however accept that both higher and lower temperatures can increase ice in a such a northern climate. Higher temperatures means more calving of icebergs and greater chunks of ice sheets breaking off. Lower tempertures can result in the freezing of the ocean surface.


I am NOT saying that climate change is not a part of this. Perhaps it is. What I am saying is that I am sick of having every single weather event that is out of the usual touted as proof of something. Weather varies and until you have prrof of a changed pattern, you have proof of nothing.

All that aside, I believe that we should be looked at ways of cutting our emissions. MY fear is that by the time humanity's impact on climate becomes known, we may not be in a position to stop or reverse whatever trend is happening

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Victor Galis


Hence the polar bears

Whats the huge deal about the bears. Every so often they get a bunch of bears coming ashore in eastern Canada in a heavier pack ice situation.

[Dinner]

I guess the polar bears are not native to Iceland. Supposedly they come ashore sometimes but there isn't much actual sea ice in iceland so it is difficult for them to hunt seals. That's what I found on a site about Icelandic wildlife.