The survey started in 1971 as a review of commercially important fish like cod and halibut, but has grown into an annual scientific assessment of all sea life hauled up from the deep.

NOAA and NASA satellites measured an average sea-surface temperature of 68.93 degrees Fahrenheit in the Gulf of Maine on Aug. 8, only 0.05 degrees below the all-time record high of 68.98 set in 2012. It is the epicenter of the U.S. lobster fishing industry, an important feeding ground for rare North Atlantic right whales .

A new study links rapid deoxygenation in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to two powerful currents: the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence has warmed and lost oxygen more rapidly than almost anywhere else in the Earth's oceanic waters due in part to climate change, raising the possibility that it could soon be unable to fully support marine life, according to a new study.