January 27, 2014 — Following a successful two-day workshop held this summer, Maine’s Island Institute has released a new report, A Climate of Change: Climate Change and New England Fisheries, that gathers observations on the effects of climate change on local fisheries and makes management recommendations for mitigating and adapting to these impacts.
The report recognizes that the Gulf of Maine’s marine landscape is already changing in response to rising temperatures, which reached record highs in 2012 and dropped only slightly last year:
The ocean is warmer and the behavior of fish and lobster is changing, most notably the timing of the lobster molt. New species are being caught in nets and traps, some traditional species are no longer present, and other species are showing up at different times.
Symposium participants say that climate change is happening faster than they thought, resulting in an increased urgency to act. What’s more, due to its unique geography and ecology and its fisheries’ reliance on a small number of commercially important species, New England may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change:
Read the full story from the Conservation Law Foundation