Citation
(2009), "UN report warns fishing industry on climate change", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq.2009.08320eab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
UN report warns fishing industry on climate change
Article Type: News From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 20, Issue 5
The fishing industry must do more to confront the effects of climate change as well as get a grip on the perennial problem of over fishing, said a UN report. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report said responsible fishing practices must be more widely implemented and called for new strategies to cope with climate change.
“Climate change is already modifying the distribution of both marine and freshwater species. Warmer-water species are being pushed towards the poles and experiencing changes in habitat size and productivity” says the report. “And climate change is affecting the seasonality of biological processes, altering marine and freshwater food webs, with unpredictable consequences for fish production,” the study said.
The report, compiled by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the key problem was still over fishing and warned that communities relying heavily on fishing could face serious problems if stocks continue to dwindle. Areas with the highest levels of fully-exploited stocks are the northeast Atlantic, the western Indian Ocean and the northwest Pacific, the FAO said.