Brussels, 10/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 10 September, the European Parliament fisheries committee discussed the impact of climate change on fisheries activities, following a study carried out, at the request of the EP, by German scientific institutes BIPRO and IGM-GEOMAR.
The study, “Climate Change and European Fisheries” confirms that changes in temperature “can lead” to shifts of fish populations, invasion by alien species and the disappearance of some species. It says that several warm water species have invaded “cold” ecosystems and that cold water species which used to be relatively abundant in “warm” ecosystems have become very scarce or disappeared. For example, sprat and mackerel have become very scarce or have disappeared from the Mediterranean Sea. The study says, too, that the increase in the temperature of the sea bottom has a negative effect on the growth rate of a fish stock. Climate change can also have an indirect positive effect (as is the case with bluefin tuna) or an indirect negative effect (as with Norway herring) on reproduction success of industrial fish.
The report stresses the difficulty in assessing the impact of shifts of industrial fish populations “because the shift related decrease is usually accompanied by a corresponding increase of another species”. In fact, “positive and negative economic impacts on industrial fishery are expected”. The authors of the report say that estimates indicate (“with a low level of confidence”) that global marine production may increase, but not by more than 10% over the period until 2050. However, satellite observations and large scale plankton sampling have shown declines in phytoplankton and chlorophyll over the last 20-50 years. For 74% of the world's permanently stratified oceans, the increase in surface warming is accompanied by a reduction in productivity. For northern latitudes, increased production is assumed since large areas will become ice-free.
The study sets out several areas where the EU could, or should, act: - taking legislative and policy measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; - developing strategies for increasing the resilience of fish populations; - developing strategies which allow sustainable exploitation of fish stocks so that fish stocks have greater resistance to environmental impacts; - developing “flexible” fish stock management strategies (that can be adjusted to environmental conditions); - developing strategies to minimise negative effects on marine aquaculture. (lc)