Investigation of Nearshore Migration of Atlantic Salmon in the Gulf of Maine Region Sponsored by NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service and Maine Sea Grant http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/program/nmfs-nearshore-salmon-ecology Workshop #2 Abstracts Overview of Gulf of Maine (especially coastal) surface circulation

Surface currents in the Gulf of Maine (GoM) are complex and variable. However, the coastal circulation patterns in spring and summer are dominated by the Gulf of Maine Coastal Current system that flows cyclonically from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod. After the spring freshet and prior to the fall overturn, the GMCC has two major branches, the Eastern Maine Coastal Current (EMCC) that flows southwestward from Grand Manan Island to the vicinity of Penobscot Bay, and the Western Maine Coastal Current (WMCC) that flows southwestward from Penobscot toward Cape Ann (Churchill et al. 2005, Pettigrew et al. 2005). The degree of connection between these two currents is quite variable and plays a potentially important role in the ultimate destination of material transported alongshore. The EMCC is typically substantially stronger than the WMCC, and much of its transport turns offshore near Penobscot Bay thus interrupting the continuity of the southwestward coastal flow. In extreme case little of the EMCC water continues on to the western shelf. At the other extreme there are seasons and years in the GMCC is more like a continuous flow along the coast. When there is a great deal of flow-through the currents in the WMCC may be twice their usual strength, and in the case of late seasonal northeast winds, the GMCC as a whole may flow at nearly 1 ms -1 .