Climate change seems to be even more devastating for sea living species than for those on land. That is the message from a group of researchers from Canada, the UK and the US who have modelled how climate change will affect fisheries of the world.

Specifically, the study looks at how ocean biodiversity will change by 2050 under three different climate scenarios that represent high, medium and low range greenhouse gas emissions. In essence, it highlights that under all three scenarios it is the countries primarily responsible for churning out greenhouse gases (e.g. parts of Europe, the US and Australia) that will have improved fisheries production in 2050.

Conservative projections
In stark contrast, the tropical regions (that contain most of the worlds developing nations) could have fisheries declines of up to 40%. It is bitterly ironic that nations in greatest need for climate change adaptation assistance (e.g. Brazil and Indonesia) may suffer the largest socio-economic consequences of reduced fisheries production.

It is important to keep in mind that these scenarios are derived from models, and may contain many inaccuracies. However, they do provide some of the most detailed levels of information available about what the consequences of climate change could be to the world’s fisheries. Considering that factors such as ocean acidification and warming on habitat forming marine organisms, such as corals, are not included within these models, the projections could even be conservative and fisheries production in the tropics even worse by 2050.

Source:
Cheung, W. and others. 2009. "Projecting global marine biodiversity impacts under climate change scenarios". Fish and Fisheries 10 (3): 235 - 251.