Yellowfin sole currently lives in the northern Pacific, from the Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea and Barkley Sound on the west coast of Canada. It could migrate to the Atlantic ocean in the 100 years according to a new study. (Photo credit: NOAA)
Fish species living in the North Atlantic and Pacific may interchange as sea ice melts and the North West and North East passages open up. This future interchange could impact commercial fishing, as new high-latitude fisheries become more viable, and in local ecosystems as new species move in and old ones are forced out.
Using niche-based modelling researchers determined that up to 85 species of fish may interchange between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic ocean within the next 100 years. Some of these species are commercially fished such as Atlantic and Saffron cod and Yellowfin sole.
Original research paper published in Nature Climate Change on January 26, 2015.
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