January 18, 2015 — Local fishing fleets may need to switch to warmer water species like squid, sardines and albacore in the coming decades, according to a recently published study.
Anticipated changes in climate that result in warmer ocean waters will push West Coast fish and other marine life north about 19 miles a decade through 2050, according to a study done by several scientists, including Richard Brodeur, a NOAA Fisheries senior scientist who works at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center’s Newport, Ore., research station. The study was published last fall in the journal Progress in Oceanography.
This northward movement is expected to happen to species like salmon, which have narrower temperature preferences than warmer-water species.
“As the climate warms, the species will follow the conditions they’re adapted to,” said Brodeur in a news release about the study. “We’re going to see more interactions between species and there will be winners and losers that we cannot foresee.”
Local fishermen already are noticing the changes. Pete Granger, a reefnet fishermen at the Lummi Island Wild Co-op, said they’ve noticed sardines and squid moving up north through the California and Oregon waters in recent years. Eventually that could lead to changes in what the local fleets fish for, a move Granger said the fleet is capable of handling.
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