How Does Climate Change Affect Fisheries?

Our ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the heat from human-caused global warming—it’s not surprising that this greatly impacts ocean animals and the communities that depend on them. The question is how they will be affected. This is especially pressing for something as economically, ecologically and culturally important as our ocean’s fisheries. 

How fish will respond to ocean warming is a complicated question, with an even more complicated answer. Let’s dive in. 

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How is climate change affecting our ocean? 

Let’s start with the obvious: Our ocean is getting warmer. The top layer of our ocean (up to about 2,300 feet) has warmed about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.83 degrees Celsius) since the beginning of the 20^th century. Although that might seem like a small amount to us, it can be a big deal for ocean animals. In addition to this warming trend, extreme ocean warming events, called marine heatwaves, have become more frequent and more intense.  

Warmer waters aren’t the only problem, though. As our ocean absorbs carbon, it becomes more acidic, which is especially bad news for shell-building organisms like oysters. Plus, warmer waters hold less oxygen; globally, ocean oxygen has declined 2% since 1960 with some areas showing decreases of up to 50%. 

What does climate change mean for fish? 

All animals—including fish—have a range of temperatures and conditions where they feel most comfortable (we can relate, right?) Although some animals can tolerate temperature increases just fine, others can experience stress or even death.  

When animals experience conditions that stress them out, they have four choices: adapt, move,  die or stick around and get stressed out. We’re already seeing these strategies play out in fish. Researchers have found that winter skate, for example, can adapt their body size to better suit warmer waters. Summer flounder, a popular seafood species, moved its range about 70 miles further north than it was in the 1970s. And a 2013 collapse of the stock of Atlantic northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine was tied to an marine heatwave in 2012. 

Some effects of climate change aren’t as easy to spot as shifting ranges or fish stock collapses, however. Stress from a changing ocean can decrease fish stock productivity, which is the number of fish that are born and survive to adulthood in a population. Reduced productivity can cause ripple effects in the ecosystem and lower the number of fish that can be caught. 

Thinking about how fish respond to temperature isn’t enough to predict their response to climate change, though. Even if a fish species can adapt to warmer waters, other climate change impacts—like heatwaves, algal blooms and hurricanes—can wreak havoc on the habitats that they depend on, not to mention their interactions with food and predators. If fish don’t have food to eat or a place to live, there’s a problem. 

How does this affect communities? 

Fish and fisheries have massive economic and cultural significance in communities around the world. Stock collapses and declines in stock productivity mean there are fewer fish to go around, which is especially problematic given that billions of people around the world rely on seafood as a key source of protein. 

For many communities around the world, fishing is more than just a way to provide food: It’s a way of life. This is particularly the case for some Indigenous communities and cultures who are already at an increased risk of experiencing negative effects of climate change. Changing conditions in Northwest Alaska, for example, are making it harder for subsistence fishers to access their fishing spots, to catch fish and even follow traditional fish-drying practices. 

It’s also bad news for the 10 to 12% of people around the world who depend on fisheries and aquaculture to support their livelihoods, including fishers and those who process, transport, sell and cook seafood. Plus, it’s disappointing news for the many people who go fishing for recreational reasons.

Shifting ranges make it hard for fishers to access their catch, too. Thanks to climate change, marine animals are expected to shift their range about 18-32 miles per decade, making it difficult for fishermen to access the species they’ve traditionally caught/targeted. This problem is especially acute for subsistence and small-scale fishers that may not be able to travel as far or make other changes to the way they fish.

What do we do? 

First and foremost, we need to continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, ocean-based climate solutions are available and effective.  But even if we successfully reduce emissions, we know there is warming ahead that poses serious challenges to fish and fisheries. That means that climate adaptation in fisheries is a path we must take. 

To make our fisheries climate-ready and maintain resilient fish populations, we need more data about how fish are responding in current conditions to help us predict how they will respond in the future. That means strategically expanding fisheries surveys, incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into science and management, and supporting research on impacts. At the same time, we can’t wait to have perfect knowledge to act. There are actions fishery managers can take now to support fish stocks to make them more resilient to climate change and proactive ways to make sure fishers and fishing communities can adapt. 

Although there is much we still need to do, there a lot of this work already underway. To see for yourself, check out NOAA Fisheries’ recently launched its Climate Vulnerability Assessment Tool, which summarizes the vulnerability of fish and other marine animals across the United States. You can also see how fishery ranges have changed over time with NOAA’s Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal. For over 25 years, Ocean Conservancy has worked to find practical solutions to the challenging problems facing our fisheries. We can all play a role in helping fish by advocating for climate-ready fishery managementand calling for ocean-powered climate solutions. Learn more about the ways we’re tackling some of the problems facing our ocean’s fisheries. 

The post How Does Climate Change Affect Fisheries? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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No New Offshore Oil and Gas Leases

I’ve spent a large part of my career working to prevent and end offshore oil and gas drilling. So, when the Biden administration recently announced its new five-year oil and gas drilling plan that scheduled multiple new offshore oil and gas drilling lease sales, I was disappointed to say the least. 

At a time when it’s never been clearer that we’re truly in a climate crisis (waters off the coast of Florida passed 100 degrees Fahrenheit in July!), we can’t afford to continue extracting and then burning more fossil fuels. The number of new lease sales was relatively small compared to previous leasing plans, but what made this one hurt just a little bit more is that it may only have been issued due to a troublesome rule that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act. 

That rule requires at least 60 million acres of our ocean be made available for offshore oil and gas drilling before any offshore wind leases can be sold. Sixty million acres is roughly the size of Michigan! In other words, if we want to continue leasing offshore renewable energy sources that will save both our ocean and us from climate change, we must keep offering offshore oil and gas leases. It doesn’t seem to matter that the new oil and gas leases will make the climate crisis worse and harm our ocean. This doesn’t make sense, and I don’t want to settle for it. 

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What gets to me the most is that the Inflation Reduction Act was groundbreaking. It was the largest investment in climate action our country has ever made and makes millions of dollars of tax credits available to help build clean, renewable sources of energy. Yet this tie with offshore wind and oil and gas drilling keeps the law from truly being a transition to clean energy. We need to cut out this unwise provision and make the Inflation Reduction Act a law that fights climate change without a giant offshore drilling asterisk. 

Offshore drilling threatens our ocean and wildlife with oil spills, creates toxic air pollution and—most of all—worsens and deepens the climate crisis. Additionally, the oil and gas industry unfairly harms lower-income communities and communities of color that bear a disproportionate share of pollution and other health impacts from oil and gas activities located near shoreline facilities. For example, a region in Louisiana has been deemed “Cancer Alley” because of a high concentration of petrochemical facilities and the extremely high numbers of health problems in the area. We cannot keep leasing, developing and drilling offshore oil if we want a healthy ocean and livable future for all. 

That’s why Ocean Conservancy supports H.R. 4936—the Nonrestrictive Offshore Wind (NOW) Act, introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) and co-led by Representative Deborah Ross (D-NC-02). The NOW Act would repeal the section of the Inflation Reduction Act that links new offshore wind leases with new offshore oil and gas leasing. If passed, the NOW Act would allow the federal government to sell new offshore wind leases freely and pave a path for no new oil and gas leases, and, ultimately, less greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. That’s the type of future I want to be a part of—one that’s free from fossil fuels and powered by clean energy.

Join us in calling on members of Congress to pass the NOW Act.

To address the climate crisis, we need a rapid, just and responsible energy transition. That transition must include the build-out of responsible offshore wind. Responsibly developed offshore wind is an effective, reliable clean-ocean energy source that can power large coastal population centers and can boost local economies providing jobs and manufacturing opportunities. And this can be done without undue harm to marine life and the ocean environment. 

But building out clean, renewable offshore wind isn’t enough. It must also be coupled with phasing out dirty and dangerous fossil fuel development that has inflamed the climate crisis for more than a century—and that means getting serious about a real transition. The NOW Act is a critical step on that path. Join with us at Ocean Conservancy to tell members of Congress to pass the NOW Act—now! 

The post No New Offshore Oil and Gas Leases appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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How Much Trash is in the Ocean?

In many ways, the ocean is “ground zero” for the plastic pollution crisis. It is so vast, yet plastics have been found in every corner of the ocean—from the deepest trench to the most remote Arctic ice sheets. Sea turtles, whales and seabirds are frequently discovered with plastics in their guts, unable to escape the plastic deluge.

So, it’s normal to wonder, how much trash is in the ocean?

To answer that question, we first must understand some of the main sources of plastic pollution in the ocean. The most well-known source is the stuff everyone interacts with regularly, is the plastic products that are thrown out but don’t make it to a recycling center or secured landfill. These include single-use food and other types of packaging—plastic bags, plastic bottles, food wrappers and bottle caps, for example—which make up most of the plastic items found on beaches and waterways around the world with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup®, the world’s largest volunteer event to clean up beaches, shorelines and river banks.

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While numerous scientific studies have attempted to model the amount of plastics that enter the ocean every year, the most comprehensive estimate to date predicts some 11 million metric tons of these plastics that should have gone to a landfill or other waste management center but end up in the ocean instead. That’s equivalent to more than a garbage truck’s worth of plastics entering the ocean each minute.

But mismanaged waste is just one of the sources of ocean plastic pollution. Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (also known as “ghost gear”) is largely made of plastics and once lost at sea, wreaks havoc on ocean wildlife indefinitely. Unfortunately, there are no strong estimates of how much ghost gear is floating in our ocean, but recent studies indicate that ghost gear makes up 46–70% of all floating macroplastics (>5mm in size) in the ocean gyres by weight.

It’s notable that neither of these figures accounts for how much plastic—including ghost gear—gets washed into the ocean during extreme weather events or natural disasters like tsunamis and floods, which are intensifying and occurring more frequently with human-induced climate change. (We do know that large debris items swept to sea during such events transport invasive species across oceans to distant shores where they can severely damage vulnerable ecosystems.

And while single-use plastics and ghost gear are certainly highly visible, there are yet other sources of plastic pollution in our ocean that are much harder to see with the naked eye. Microplastics are plastics smaller than 5mm in any dimension, and the shapes of microplastics most commonly encountered in the environment are fibers, tire-wear particles and paint particles. Plastic microfibers shed from synthetic textiles every time we run a load of laundry. Scientists have found that a single load of laundry can generate up to 18 million plastic microfibers, which exit our homes and make their ways into freshwater environments and the ocean.

Tire-wear particles shed from driving on roads, and paint particles sloughed from buildings or blasted off of vessels needing new paint are other significant sources of microplastic pollution entering our ocean.

With such diverse sources of plastics—and broad estimates for each—it’s tricky to put an exact number on how much plastic is in our ocean. A recent study put that figure at approximately 171 trillion pieces of plastic floating at the ocean’s surface. Future studies may aim to further refine this estimate by including plastics that have sunk below the ocean surface, due either to the plastics’ density or from being colonized by marine life.

While current estimates are ballpark figures, they continue to be refined as more data on the plastic-pollution problem become available. What we know for sure, however, is that there are enough plastics in the ocean at this very moment to be causing widespread harm to ocean life. To date, nearly 1,300 different marine species have been documented with plastics in their bodies.

Everyone can do their part to protect ocean wildlife and combat plastic pollution. Join Ocean Conservancy and call on your state’s elected officials to support and pass legislation to reduce the amount of plastic pollution entering our ocean every day.

The post How Much Trash is in the Ocean? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Ocean Advocacy Insights from New York Climate Week

World leaders, government officials and representatives from the private sector and civil society gathered in New York September 16 to 22 for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Week and New York Climate Week. The focus was clear: climate action, transitioning to cleaner energy, advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and preparing for COP28 (the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference). 

Our team from Ocean Conservancy was right in the mix, meeting with governments and engaging in more than 30 events in just five days. We advocated for solutions to tackle climate change and biodiversity crises, all while promoting a healthy and resilient ocean.  

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We delved into these discussions with the stark backdrop of an unfolding climate catastrophe, as 2023 is predicted to be the warmest year on record. However, there was a ripple of hope as maritime-focused meetings underscored the intrinsic connection between our oceans and climate. We attended the UN High-Level Ocean Meeting, initiated by the United Nations Global Compact and the Ocean Stewardship Coalition. It was heartening to see heads of state, ministers, the private sector and civil society joining forces to discuss pathways for a sustainable ocean economy. 

A high point of the week was the UN Climate Ambition Summit, where UN Secretary-General António Guterres rebuked the slow pace of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables. The plea from climate-vulnerable nations to phase out fossil fuels echoed throughout the United Nations corridors and beyond. This is critical—because the ocean is at the center of two major growth areas for fossil fuels—offshore oil production and plastics. Across various forums, our team championed the need for a responsible, rapid and just transition away from offshore oil and gas to clean-ocean energy, like offshore wind. We also highlighted the critical importance of reducing plastic production to fight climate change and the ocean pollution crisis—highlighting the results of new research from Ocean Conservancy and Planet Tracker on a virtual panel targeting investors who are thinking about how to reduce these threats. We worked to highlight the connection between climate and plastics throughout the week at events aimed at convening governments and advocates around priorities for the next round of negotiations on the global plastics treaty coming up in November 2023.  

The message throughout was unambiguous: We need to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors to achieve the ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030. In line with this, Ocean Conservancy, in its role as the Offshore Renewable Energy Sector Lead for the UNFCCC’s Marrakesh Partnership for Global Climate Action, Ocean and Coastal Zones, championed an Ocean Breakthrough initiative which calls for the allocation of $10 billion in concessional finance for developing countries to deploy offshore wind.  

We joined the Global Offshore Wind Alliance Breakfast Roundtable, which brought together ministers, government leaders, industry, investors and civil society on financing offshore wind globally. As the only conservation organization in the room, we made the case that in the fight against climate change, concessional finance for offshore wind projects in developing countries is critical, and so are biodiversity guardrails, representing a path forward that aligns both environmental and economic progress. 

The week also saw candid discussions on the economic ramifications of climate inaction. The call for companies and investors to report the risks they face from climate change, the need to end harmful fossil fuel subsidies and the imperative to foster public-private partnerships for green transitions were common threads across different forums. The emphasis on aligning private-sector business models with global biodiversity goals was a recurring theme. Ocean Conservancy is helping co-author principles for net-positive impact on biodiversity for offshore wind, which will be launched at the upcoming UN climate talks at COP28. 

A milestone achievement for the ocean was the signing of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Treaty. After two decades, the BBNJ Treaty to safeguard life in the ocean beyond national jurisdiction (also known as the High Seas), which covers half the planet, was officially signed by more than 75 countries. The signing symbolizes the commitment of countries to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions, aligning with broader global sustainability and ocean conservation goals. The Ocean Race Summit added another layer of advocacy for our ocean by presenting a petition to the UN General Assembly calling for a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights.  

We wrapped up the week with a sense of global solidarity. The discussions, pledges and shared vision for a sustainable future reaffirmed the urgency to act against the unfolding climate crisis. The stakes are high, and inaction is not an option. If we fail, we leave our children an ocean that is boiling and a planet that is burning and flooding. Together, with actionable commitments, we can and we must steer our planet towards a sustainable, resilient and inclusive future, ensuring a thriving ocean for all. And this is exactly what Ocean Conservancy will be advancing at COP28, Dubai, in December.

The post Ocean Advocacy Insights from New York Climate Week appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Untangling Threats to Whales

In recent years, an elevated number of whale strandings have occurred along the east coast of the United States. These unusual mortality events have rightly raised concerns, especially with regard to the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Misinformation about the causes of these whale strandings is jeopardizing the public’s ability to address the real threats to whales and implement evidence-based solutions that can help. We at Ocean Conservancy are following these events closely and want our members and ocean lovers everywhere to have accurate information about whale threats. By sharing information from trusted sources, we can help protect whales from the true pressures upon them.

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What are the known threats to whales?

Historically, the largest threat to whales was commercial whaling. For example, commercial whalers had hunted the North Atlantic right whale to the brink of extinction by the late 1890s. Commercial whaling is no longer a threat, but many species have never recovered from that time.

Today, whales are still extremely sensitive to human activity in our ocean. Through many years of research, the top threats to whales have been identified, many of them interwoven, thusly compounding the impacts. These threats include: 

• Climate Change:  Warming waters caused by climate change have put extreme pressure on our whale populations. Whale food sources, such as zooplankton and small fish, are shifting poleward or declining altogether, affecting whale calving grounds, feeding areas and migration routes. Whales are now often sighted outside their usual regions, migrating much further to find ideal habitats and shifting their foraging patterns into busy shipping lanes and fishing grounds. This situation puts them at greater risk of being struck by vessels, entangled in fishing gear and exposed to noise pollution.

•  Fishing Gear: Active, lost or abandoned fishing gear can present serious hazards to whales, which can become entangled, hampering their abilities to swim, surface for air, feed, and, in extreme cases, causing death. There are fishing strategies and technologies available that can mitigate entanglement. 

• Vessel Strikes: With the shift to a global economy, vessel traffic along U.S. coasts has increased, significantly overlapping with whale calving grounds, feeding areas and migration routes. Encounters between whales and medium to large ships can lead to fatal injuries with mothers and calves being at particular risk. Restrictions on vessel speeds (10 knots) to deter contact in these nearshore areas do exist.

• Marine Noise:  Noise in ocean waters, especially from port activity, ships, and fossil fuel surveying, pile driving and other construction, can impair whales’ abilities to carry out their normal activities, including detecting and avoiding large ships. The offshore wind industry produces underwater noise through High Resolution Geophysical (HRG) surveys to help determine the placement of wind turbine structures and through pile driving to build turbine foundations. Many of the sounds from HRG surveys are of a frequency range that falls outside of whales’ hearing range. Several noise minimization and avoidance strategies are being explored and used to reduce the impact of pile-driving noise, including restrictions on when this activity can occur, as well as quiet foundation designs that avoid pile driving altogether.

Ocean Conservancy works to safeguard the ocean, its communities and all life that dwells within. Protecting whales —and other marine animals—from vessel strikes, fishing gear entanglement and other top threats is a top priority.

Ocean Conservancy’s vision is of a healthier ocean, protected by a more just world. Our work focuses on creating an ocean where wildlife and communities can thrive—including whales. We advocate for strong marine mammal protections, as well as long-term ocean planning that maps out and strategizes overlapping ocean uses, helps minimize conflict and protects the environment.

Addressing vessel strikes and fishing-gear entanglements are essential parts of what we do.. We work with lawmakers and industry officials to reduce cargo ship speeds, which could decrease whale fatalities by up to 78%. Through the Global Ghost Gear Initiative®, Ocean Conservancy leads more than 150 public- and private-sector entities to catalyze solutions for removing ghost gear and preventing new ghost gear from entering our waters. We collaborate with a wide range of partners to understand the threats to our ocean. We are closely following noise pollution, and working to implement evidence-based solutions to reduce impacts from sound pollution, specifically noise from vessels. 

We must prioritize climate change solutions to protect marine wildlife like whales.

No part of our work is as vital as understanding and mitigating the connections between increasing effects of climate change and our ocean—including the behavior of marine species like whales in the face of warming waters. Given the the importance of addressing the climate change crisis to protect our ocean and whales, Ocean Conservancy supports the transition away from oil and gas and towards clean renewable energy sources, including offshore wind. Yet as offshore wind is developed, this new industry, like others in our ocean, will impact our ecosystems and marine life, whether from vessel traffic, underwater noise pollution or building structures in the water. 

Ocean Conservancy is committed to ensuring offshore wind energy is developed responsibly, avoiding, minimizing and mitigating unintended consequences for wildlife, our ecosystems and communities andmonitoring closely as it expands, adaptively managing to account for new scientific findings and observed effects to our ocean resources.  See our principles of responsible offshore wind here.  To protect our ocean, we need to comfrot the climate crisis. Take action with Ocean Conservancy to advocate for clean ocean energy and protect our ocean and wildlife for the future. 

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