Canada's last fully intact Arctic ice shelf collapses

[Nevilledog]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/canadas-last-fully-intact-arctic-233003096.html

(Reuters) - The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40% of its area in just two days at the end of July, researchers said on Thursday.

The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.

"Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up," the Canadian Ice Service said on Twitter when it announced the loss on Sunday.

"Entire cities are that size. These are big pieces of ice," said Luke Copland, a glaciologist at the University of Ottawa who was part of the research team studying the Milne Ice Shelf.

*snip*

[Submariner]

1. With that semi-permanent ice cover gone,

that will allow the more nearshore Arctic waters to warm into the 30s/40s, and that cold water will make excellent habitat for the lobster population when it completely disappears from nearshore Maine waters in the next decade or so. Canada will have have a lock on the worldwide lobster market.

Huge species impacts and changes to come from this accelerated melting.