Nov022009
Atlantic fish populations shift as ocean warms
Filed under General by david brooks at 5:52 pm
“About half of 36 fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, many of them commercially valuable species, have been shifting northward over the last four decades, with some stocks nearly disappearing from U.S. waters as they move farther offshore,” reports a new study by NOAA researchers (press release here). It doesn’t say why the oceans are warming, but is a reminder that changes in climate can have sweeping effects:
“Consumers in the Northeast, for example, may eventually start seeing less familiar species like Atlantic croaker at local markets and on restaurant menus as southern and Mid-Atlantic species move northward into New England waters,” said Janet Nye, a postdoctoral researcher at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. “The fish appear to be adapting to a changing environment, and people will as well over the next few decades.”
Check out the report- it’s got lots of good charts. (I was going to copy one here but it’s too big for WordPress to handle, and my filesize-shrinking Photoshop is acting wonky - so you’ll have to click through.)
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