MELBOURNE, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Climate change could sharply reduce global fishing yields, as fish adapt to warmer oceans in ways that make them smaller and less productive, new research has revealed.
New modelling from Australia's Monash University predicts how climate change will alter fishing yields in many regions, threatening food security, livelihoods and the future of marine life as a sustainable food source, a university statement said Friday.
The study, published in Science, modelled the effect of evolutionary change on nearly 3,000 fish species and projected future yields for 43 major fisheries worldwide.
The findings suggest that while fish will evolve to survive higher temperatures, they will grow faster but mature earlier, an adaptation that reduces their maximum size, leading to smaller catches.
"This evolution is good for fish but bad for fisheries," said Professor Craig White, head of the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University.
"Every degree of warming is predicted to decrease fisheries production," White said, adding that a good climate policy that limits global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius has the potential to preserve millions of tonnes of fisheries production that would otherwise be lost. ■
