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Climate change impacts on the biophysics and economics of world fisheries

Nature Climate Change volume 1, pages 449–456 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global marine fisheries are underperforming economically because of overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation. Added to these threats is the looming challenge of climate change. Observations, experiments and simulation models show that climate change would result in changes in primary productivity, shifts in distribution and changes in the potential yield of exploited marine species, resulting in impacts on the economics of fisheries worldwide. Despite the gaps in understanding climate change effects on fisheries, there is sufficient scientific information that highlights the need to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation policies to minimize impacts on fisheries.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram indicating the biophysical and socio-economic impacts of climate change at different levels of organizations, from individual organisms to the society.
Figure 2: Sea surface temperature changes, global fish catch and the number of publications on the relationship between climate change and fisheries.
Figure 3: Summary of the approach and key results of a modelling study that assesses the impacts of climate change on potential catches from global fisheries.

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Acknowledgements

U.R.S. was partly supported by the World Bank and the Pew Charitable Trusts. W.W.L.C. was partly supported by the National Geographic Society and the World Bank. V.W.Y.L. was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts through U.R.S's Pew Fellowship. D.P. is partially supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and S.H. is with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration San Diego Office. We thank P. Cury, A. Dyck and J. Sarmiento for their insights during the course of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fisheries Economics Research Unit, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z2, British Columbia, Canada

    U. Rashid Sumaila & Vicky W. Y. Lam

  2. Sea Around us Project, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z2, British Columbia, Canada

    William W. L. Cheung & Daniel Pauly

  3. Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, 92037, California, USA

    Samuel Herrick

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Correspondence to U. Rashid Sumaila.

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Sumaila, U., Cheung, W., Lam, V. et al. Climate change impacts on the biophysics and economics of world fisheries. Nature Clim Change 1, 449–456 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1301

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