October 10, 2014 — Large numbers of fish will disappear from the tropics by 2050, according to a University of British Columbia study that examines the potential effects of climate change on marine life.
Researchers used the same climate change scenarios as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to project a large-scale movement of marine fish and invertebrates. They concluded that changing temperatures will drive more fish toward Arctic and Antarctic waters.
The UBC team came up with a worst-case scenario, in which the Earth’s oceans warm by three degrees Celsius by 2100. In that case, fish could move away from their current habitats at a rate of 26 kilometres per decade. Under the best-case scenario, where the Earth warms by one degree Celsius, fish would move 15 kilometres every decade.