Climate change is altering the productivity of many marine fisheries

Weather of Arabia - A new report that includes analyzes and modeling operations issued today, Wednesday, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and more than 100 collaborating scientists, expects that climate change will cause a change in the productivity of many marine and fresh fisheries in the world by 2050, which will affect the ways lives of millions of the poorest people in the world.

The report says that the productive capacity of fisheries in the marine exclusive economic zones - areas that extend 200 miles out to sea and to which each coastal state has exclusive rights to exploit - may decline to less than 12 percent on average, but this masks greater fluctuations in production capacity over the years. regional level.

The report says that climate change will also affect very important - yet often ignored - inland aquatic systems on the surface of the planet, which include five of the least developed countries in the world among the top 10 fish producers, producing each year approximately 11.6 million tons of food. for human consumption.

These impacts are related to changing water temperature and acidity levels, changes in ocean circulation patterns, rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns and hurricanes, which leads to changes in species distribution and productivity, coral bleaching, prevalence and prevalence of aquatic diseases, and more.

Today, FAO released these projections in a 654-page report that contains global, regional and national information and analysis, and represents the most comprehensive publication ever of information collected on climate change and fisheries.

The report, Impacts of Climate Change on Fisheries and Aquaculture: Synthesizing Current Knowledge and Options for Adaptation and Mitigation, includes new research on the latest available scientific information on how climate change is affecting the world's oceans, lakes and rivers and how it is changing the lifestyle of the communities in which they live. depend on it.

The report includes a collection of case studies that focus on the challenges, and adaptation solutions being explored, in 13 major marine areas stretching from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.

The report says that there are currently a range of fisheries management tools that can be used to respond to climate change, but many of them need to be refined to meet specific needs in specific contexts.

In order to ensure that adaptation modalities are coordinated and that there is no mis-adaptation, FAO has divided these modalities into three different categories: institutional and administrative responses; enhancing and diversifying livelihoods; mitigating risk and supporting resilience.

The FAO says we can meet the challenge of climate change, and the organization's new report indicates how to do so effectively, as well as reducing impacts and increasing opportunities.

Source: Petra