WFC: How Global climate change affects fish, and how to dance a jig
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Blogger: Chiara Zuccarino-Crowe, PhD student
I spent the majority of today in a session about “Global Marine Hotspots”. The session organizers are part of an international team tracking the effects of climate change on fisheries in regions around the world that are experiencing the most extreme changes in temperature. It was amazing to see presentations by scientists from different continents telling similar stories – fish ranges are shifting. As sea surface temperatures rise, various species are appearing in locations they were previously not found. They are seeking cooler waters – and the trend is happening in many different systems.
I attended several of these presentations because of the implications of these findings for marine protected areas, which is a subject I am especially interested in. If the areas fish inhabit continue to shift with changes in water temperatures, then some of the existing areas meant to protect certain species from overharvest might no longer be effective. It’s difficult to anticipate benefits related to a fishing closure, if the fish of interest have moved out of the area!
I also attended another session about inland fisheries that my advisor, Bill Taylor, presented in today,
And tonight was the gala! We had a wonderful dinner – I sat at a table with a bunch of friendly folks from Australia (a group of researchers that sponsored the climate change session I mentioned above), and felt very lucky to be part of it all. And after dinner came the Scottish dancing lessons! I had no idea what I was doing, but it was a blast. I originally didn’t expect that many people would join in (because I thought folks might be shy), but go figure…there were so many people up and trying to dance that we barely had room to move!
