Improved fisheries management could offset many negative effects of climate change

The world’s oceans supply food and livelihood to billions of people; however climate change is compromising these benefits through changes in both stock productivity and stock distribution. The study investigated how future global biomass, harvest, and profit of the world’s fisheries might change over time if a range of potential human responses and climate change are considered together. To this aim, four management scenarios were considered: (i) Full Adaptation, (ii) Range Shift Adaptation, (iii) Productivity Adaptation, and (iv) No Adaptation. Results indicated that the poor current status of many stocks combined with potentially maladaptive responses to range shifts could reduce future global fisheries yields and profits even more severely than previous estimates have suggested. However, reforming fisheries in ways that jointly fix current inefficiencies, adapt to fisheries productivity changes, and proactively create effective transboundary institutions could lead to a future with higher profits and yields compared to what is produced today.