May 16, 2013 — A sweeping new study concludes that climate change is putting global fish stocks on the move.
Published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, the study (PDF) shows that for 40 years now, warming waters have been driving global fish stocks toward cooler, deeper waters. That includes Northeast groundfish, such as cod and flounder.
Commercial Fishing
Commercial fishermen in the Northeast have been seeing this. As a group, they didn’t catch nearly as many cod and other groundfish this past year as they were allowed.
“Some of our largest processors here in New England have had to resort to importing from Iceland, Norway, Newfoundland and Canada as primary source of haddock and cod,” said Richie Canastra, co-owner of the New Bedford and Boston Seafood Auctions.
Canastra spoke at a recent rally on Boston’s fish pier, where he called for raising catch limits.
But the study authors suggest otherwise. And so does fishery biologist Jud Crawford with The Pew Charitable Trusts, which partly funded the study. He said the way to help groundfish, such as cod and haddock, that are being squeezed by warmer waters is to lower other pressures, like commercial fishing.
“A very important response is going to be to substantially improve the way that we protect ocean habitat,” Crawford said.
The new study could inform a policy decision due next month. The National Marine Fisheries Service is set to decide whether to open up 5,000 square miles of protected waters to bottom trawl fishing.
Listen to the audio and read the full story at NPR affiliate WBUR