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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.
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.
with the lobster industry. One of the frustrating (or amusing if I'm feeling mean) things is watching several "red" states (e.g. they vote GOP, the party currently calling Climate Change a hoax) clearly impacted. Florida had a huge problem with red tide this year. If it keeps getting worse it'll kill their tourist industry. Meanwhile the SEC filings, where mega corps aren't allowed to lie, are chock full of lines about the negative impacts of climate change.
I'm not necessarily blaming the rank and file though. Most of the Dems don't really have a solution besides "consume less", which would be great if a) the vast majority of pollution was from consumers and not the companies they buy from and b) folks weren't living paycheck to paycheck so on edge they're terrified of any change. A few lefties like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have suggested a "Green New Deal" to address this, but the Clinton Democrats (the right wing of the party) don't want to tax their wealthy donors to pay for it all.
So the result is this, we're all going to hell in a handbasket and just pretending it's not happening.
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I was also thinking about overfishing, but not migration. I instead suspect these fish have always been that far north, but nobody knew because the fishing was easier further south. But now that the more southern fisheries have been overfished, the fishermen are going further north and finding new--to them--schools.
I have very little knowledge about the fishing industry (which is odd since much of my salary is provided by it) but I'm curious.
The article makes a big deal about how climate has effected the fishing industry. I'm a huge lover of old books and have read pretty much everything I could get my hands on from the past 5000 years of writing. I recall stories dating back to the ancient Egyptians regarding the how a major part of their version of modern politics was centered around the inundation of the Nile. And in recent times, we know that it's very important for dead fish to be left on the shores of the Nile to fertilize crops.
It seems to me that I can think of books and historical references from nearly every era of human history that would tell stories of fishermen chasing fish because the fishing grounds constantly changed.
That said, I live in Norway now which depends almost as much on fish as on oil money. A massive portion of the country's income is spent on fish breeding and while Norway is still a whaling country, they apparently are believed to be one of the top contributors to repopulating the whales of the world. I know very little about the details and I have no idea how accurate my understanding of this topic is. I believe most of what I know is hearsay.
That said, I wonder if anyone here on Slashdot is knowledgeable about the fishing industry and could answer some questions.
1) Are the migratory issues normal? In other words, did the fish always move similar to this? Is the problem because companies aren't "fishing companies" but instead "halibut companies"? Instead of changing to a different fish as might have happened 500 years ago, the companies are chasing specific types of fish now because they have the means to?
2) Is the fish population genuinely less or could it be that fish are adapting to a more hostile environment and swimming further from the surface as a matter of survival?
3) Is this an issue of genuine migration? The blurb makes a point that not only are the fish further north, but there are less of them? Could it be that these fish were probably always there but the southern populations have been so over-fished that there simply aren't enough left to make it profitable?
4) Could the population have migrated elsewhere and we simply haven't found them yet? I imagine we don't have submarines zooming all over the Atlantic looking for halibut.
5) Is it even possible to farm fish instead? In other words, here in Norway, much of our salmon comes from farms instead of free range. Is it possible for the industry to adapt for other fish?