PORTLAND, Maine — August 1, 2013 — Climate change is only one of several threats to New England fisheries, and it might not even be the most serious, scientists and policy makers said at a symposium Thursday in Portland.
More information, monitoring and study are needed to determine fully what is causing problems in the oceans, and how, they said.
The discussion came in the second day of a two-day symposium held by the Rockland-based Island Institute at the Portland Company complex on Fore Street.
Historical overfishing of certain stocks, changes in entire ecosystems, coastal development and methods of fisheries management also have contributed to species' declines and injury to the fisheries, experts said. They focused on how fishermen and managers can respond in the future to the complexity and uncertainty of climate change, altered ecosystems, declining stocks, closed fishing areas and other pressures on the industry.
All of those pressures will have to be addressed to sustain New England fisheries, they said. To focus solely on climate change and its consequences would be to miss the opportunity to assess what is ailing the oceans and make lasting and effective changes.
More than 50 ocean scientists, policy makers and representatives of fishermen's advocacy organizations exchanged ideas on the causes and potential corrections for a half-century of sweeping changes in New England fisheries.