"Scuba diver and photographer Lloyd Bond has documented increasing numbers of tropical fish near Halifax
(He) thought the first time he saw a spotfin butterfly fish under a Nova Scotia wharf it would be a one-off.
"It's like, oh wow, I saw a butterfly fish and a seahorse in the same year," the Halifax resident said. "Then the following year I [saw] the same thing, and it was twice as many."
Bond, who has been scuba diving around Nova Scotia for 23 years, says in the last three years he's seen increasing numbers of not only butterfly fish and seahorses, but cornet fish, trigger fish, puffer fish and many other species rarely seen in Canadian waters.
The fish are often vibrantly coloured or have fluorescent markings, and some have ranges that i:nclude the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to Brazil.
Canadian scientists agree ocean temperatures have increased over the last century due to climate change caused by humans. In its April 2019 report Canada's Changing Climate, Environment and Climate Change Canada said the Earth's oceans are projected to continue to warm over the coming century due to greenhouse gas emissions.
Measurements taken by Fisheries and Oceans Canada have shown ocean temperatures rising sharply starting in 2010, with some areas such as Georges Basin — a deep-water hole in the Gulf of Maine — having the warmest temperature on record for that region last July."