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Climate Change Drives Fish Into New Waters, Remaking an Industry (wsj.com)

The catch is shifting northward as water temperatures rise, forcing crews to retool their boats and rework their businesses. From a report: Aboard the Stanley K and the Oracle, two 58-foot vessels, Buck Laukitis and his crews chase halibut across the Bering Sea worth $5 a pound at the docks. As sea temperatures rise, and Arctic ice retreats the fish appear to be avoiding warming waters, migrating northward where they cost more to reach, federal fisheries biologists say. Twice this past fall, the Oracle sailed 800 miles north from the seaport of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, before finding the halibut that a decade ago lived several hundred miles closer to home. Each voyage took twice as long and yielded half as many fish. "It keeps me up at night," he says. "I woke up at three in the morning. I couldn't sleep thinking about where the fish are going."

Across the continent from Mr. Laukitis in Rhode Island, black sea bass have moved in with the warming waters. The bulk once lived roughly 700 miles south off North Carolina. Now they are a staple catch in Point Judith, R.I., along with the summer flounder that also have begun appearing. [...] The impact of climate change has a price, and for fishing-boat owners in sea ports, that means following the catch. The northward movement of fish around the world is disrupting some fishing grounds and revitalizing others -- and fishing businesses are trying to adapt their operations.

The impact of temperature on oceans is varied. As the atmosphere warmed in recent decades, oceans absorbed heat unevenly, causing marine hot spots that can last months, scientists say. Spikes of warmer water affect fisheries differently depending on ocean currents, ocean depth and seafloor topography. Higher temperatures mean less dissolved oxygen in the water while increasing a fish's demand for oxygen by speeding up its metabolism. Warming water may also favor predators or drive off species on which commercial fish feed. All told, warming ocean temperatures are pushing hundreds of marine species outside of their traditional ranges, ocean scientists say.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bullshit by gtall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ah, spoken like a true preacher, say the one of a Church in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay whose island is disappearing. Said the holy man of the cloth, I paraphrase, the world is such a magnificent creation of G-d that man cannot affect it.

    Kind of hard to argue with the fish. They cannot speak but they do vote.

  2. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Who said it couldn't be explained?
    But who wants to try to explain something to some one who pronounces that oceans are beyond compression?

    If I'm going to waste my time explaining something more complex than a big body of water to some one, It's not going to be some one who starts out with "I can't comprehend a big body of water."

    It's a loosing battle to try to explain something to some one who has decided they are an idiot and would like to remain that way.

  3. Re:Maine is seeing this too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm generally critical of democrats as well, but they did do that whole push for solar and wind development that's currently driving the cost of renewables below fossil fuels.

  4. Re:Adaptation to Change - What a concept! by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "The northward movement of fish around the world is disrupting some fishing grounds and revitalizing others -- and fishing businesses are trying to adapt their operations. "

    Sometime change costs some people money (and risk), and sometimes the exact same change reduces peoples' costs (and risks). Imagine that. The human mind is capable of reasoning about and understanding patterns that will allow us to adjust to changes in our environment. Perhaps we're not all going to die (at least all at once).

    ...unless you live in the Pacific and fish are a staple part of your diet.

    In which case you starve to death.

    --
    No sig today...