A new analysis using computer models indicates that many commercially important species of fish are moving toward the poles and that some could disappear from the tropics altogether by 2050.
The analysis used multiple models and covered 802 species to show that fish ranges are moving at a rate between 15 and 26 km per year. The rate of movement depends on which of the climate change scenarios published by the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is used.
Tropical regions – where many depend on fish for food and nutrition – will be hardest hit, while areas further north will have to deal with invasive species that could upset the ecological balance.
Original research paper published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science on October 10, 2014.
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