Fish stocks in the north-east Atlantic Ocean are shifting due to warming waters. The move is harming some fish stocks but benefiting others, according to research published this week in Current Biology.
Led by Dr Steve Simpson of the University of Bristol (UK) in collaboration with researchers from eight other institutions, the study combined a suite of European datasets including more than 100 million fish to analyse how climate change is affecting the commercially important European fishery. Researchers examined 28 years of fisheries agency data from eleven independent surveys spanning more than one million square kilometres of the European continental shelf.
Warming in the north-east Atlantic has been taking place at a rate four times the global average over the past 30 years.
"While a 1.3-degree Celsius change in mean annual temperature in the North Sea over the past three decades may sound trivial, temperature has a strong influence on egg maturation rates, growth and survival of fish larvae, and impacts on the planktonic communities that underpin the food webs that sustain commercial fisheries," explained Simpson.
The data show that fish in European waters have already gone through intense community-level changes related to dramatic regional warming trends. Some 72 percent of common fish species have undergone a change in abundance related to rising sea temperatures. Of those fish, three out of every four species have seen their populations grow.
"We may see a further decline in cold-adapted species, many of which were the staple for our grandparents," said Simpson."The flip side is a likely increase in species that for the UK may seem relatively exotic now, such as red mullet and John Dory. Over time, with effective management and an appropriate response in consumer demand, European seas have the potential to yield productive and sustainable fisheries into the future."
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