Report finds Ireland to face cooling temperatures as Gulf Stream weakens

ireland
Report Finds Ireland To Face Cooling Temperatures As Gulf Stream Weakens
A new report into Ireland's ocean climate found the Gulf Stream, which gives Ireland its temperate climate, could decrease by 30%. Photo: PA
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James Cox

Ireland could get cooler, wetter and stormier due to climate change.

A new report into Ireland's ocean climate found the Gulf Stream, which gives Ireland its temperate climate, could decrease by 30 per cent.

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The research warns the country will still experience other consequences of a warming planet, with sea levels rising between 2 and 3 millimetres per year since the 1990s.

Co-author of that report, Dr Gerard McCarthy, said Irish waters are attracting fish that thrive in colder water.

Dr McCarthy told Newstalk radio: "We also see things like blue whiting. Blue whiting is a small but mid-water column fish... a little like the mackerel or herring... and we've seen an increase in those close to the Irish shore.

"This is consistent with a cooling and a freshening in the North Atlantic, so these climatic effects are visible in the ecosystem as well."

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