Climate to put heat on fish stocks

July 09, 2007
From The Australian

CLIMATE change is likely to put significant pressure on the nation's fish stocks, with new CSIRO research identifying the eastern and southeast coastlines as the most vulnerable to warming temperatures.

A new CSIRO climate change vulnerability index, to be launched today, finds coastal waters will warm by up to two degrees by 2030, encouraging fish to move south, threatening marine turtles, and potentially pushing box jellyfish down the east coast.

Scientists said yesterday fishing stocks potentially faced a "double whammy" from the consequences of fishing and climate change.

The climate change index, developed by CSIRO's Marine and Atmospheric Research Unit, considered seven large marine domains around Australia and determined their vulnerability to climate change based on five dimensions.

These were biological, regional characteristics, climate change, fishing, and other stress factors caused by human activity.

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