Lobster catch. (Photo: Confluence)

Climate change to affect commercial fishermen in the US and Canada

CANADA
Saturday, May 19, 2018, 02:10 (GMT + 9)

Climate change will force hundreds of ocean fish to shift northwards, disrupting fisheries in the United States and Canada, a Rutgers University-led study reports.

The study covers the North American continental shelves on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the species surveyed include finfish, sharks and rays, crustaceans, and squid.

The researchers conducting the survey point out that among those most affected species are Pacific rockfishes, Atlantic cod and black sea bass.

The survey shows that as climate change continues and the oceans warm up, more species of fish will move north to where the temperature range is habitable for them.

“For commercial fishers, this often means longer trips and higher fuel costs,” points out co-author Malin Pinsky, a professor of ecology, evolution and natural resources at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

The researchers foresee that some species along the US and Canadian Pacific coasts will move as much as 900 miles north from their current habitats.

The team of scientists conducting the study used 16 different climate models, each with both a low level of greenhouse gas emissions and a high level, to develop projections for future ocean temperatures around North America.

They argue that the lower-level emissions scenario is in line with goals set by the Paris Accords, from which President Trump withdrew the United States earlier this year. These climate projections were combined with statistical models of species temperature preference, which were based on bottom-trawl survey data from around the continent.

In their view, while both high and low emission scenarios project some northward shift, the shifts in species habitat will be two to three times greater under a high emissions future.

As examples Pinsky cites the case of the Alaskan king crab and explains that as the people in that fishery already travel a long way to catch crabs, this may not make a big difference to them in the short term but, on the other hand, the scientist explains that for fishermen based in North Carolina, fishing for black sea bass, it will represent a real issue as they will have to travel 300 or 400 extra miles to do it.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
 

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