This study characterizes a multidecadal sea level rise and its pause in the tropical North Atlantic margin off northwest Africa hosting important marine fisheries. The pause in sea level rise is owing to temperature-driven seawater contraction that counteracted salt-driven expansion and mass accumulation. Currents originating elsewhere freshened the margin with low-salinity water, highlighting a multidecadal linkage between salinity and sea level anomalies in different North Atlantic regions.