These images also reflect the seasonal change in water temperature in the Gulf of Maine. Tropical waters like those of the Caribbean Sea are warm, clear, shallow, and very salty. The Caribbean Sea is an homogenous body of water about 500 miles wide by about 1,200 miles long. The Caribbean Current flows from east to west, with localized gyres and countercurrents. Scientists from 22 Caribbean Basin nations are cooperating on regional projects to research such things as the effect of hurricanes on fish kills and coral destruction, mass mortalities of marine organisms, larval distribution patterns, and sea level rise.
Satellite images show the Caribbean to be devoid of phytoplankton compared to the Gulf of Maine.
Virtually no seasonal variation in phytoplankton levels occurs there, with the exception of areas that are affected by run-off from rivers such as the Amazon. After the rainy season, the Amazon River washes nutrients many miles out into the sea. That runoff promotes phytoplankton blooms. This natural process is exacerbated by increased erosion caused by rain forest cutting. Satellite images show that the sea surface temperature of the Caribbean is warm throughout the year, as would be expected of an area just above the equator.