The 1882 tilefish kill - a cold event in shelf waters off the north-eastern United States?

A mass mortality of 'warm-water' tilefish in the Middle Atlantic Eight betw een April and August of 1882 suggests an episode of extreme cold in the she lf waters off the north-eastern United States. This cooling is hypothesized to be a consequence of enhanced equatorwards transport of cold water in th e Labrador Current, coincident with a minimum in the North Atlantic Oscilla tion (NAO) index during the early 1880s. Although there is little direct evidence for this historical event, an anal ogue for the 1880s cooling is found in the 1960s, at the most recent NAO-in dex minimum. Post-1945 observations in the Middle Atlantic Eight / Gulf of Maine region reveal changes in winter baroclinic circulation between cool a nd warm decades, with greater equatorward penetration of south-westwards fl ow along the shelf-edge during the cool 1960s. Over the period 1934-77, the NAO is found to account for 17% of the interannual variance in Labrador Cu rrent transport around the Grand Banks. Proxy evidence for the cold episode of the early 1880s is sought. Records o f bottom temperature in the Middle Atlantic Eight region are reconstructed using stable oxygen isotopic analysis on the annual bands of shells of a bi valve mollusc (Arctica islandica) and an empirical model of covariability w ith local air temperature. The result is confirmation of the presence of an omalously cold water during the early 1880s.