Tarpon in Rhode Island

August 26, 2006 By: Marshall Cutchin

Tarpon — whose historical range was once considered bounded on the north by Maryland and possibly New Jersey — are showing up in commercial fishermen’s gill nets off of Rhode Island. Is it yet another effect of global warming? One thing’s for sure: it demonstrates that as a species reacts to changing water temperatures, it increases the risk that that species will be exposed to additional threats.