Altogether, 400 million people in Africa and Southeast Asia rely on fish and other marine foods like seaweed to provide half their essential protein and minerals.
Rashid Sumaila, a fisheries economist at the University of British Columbia, said “rough estimates” at modeling the effect of climate change on the world’s fisheries suggest catches in the tropics could decline 40 percent by 2055 due to a panoply of factors including warming waters and ocean acidification.
Existing problems like overfishing complicate the picture, making it more difficult to project the effects of climate change.
“If you have a fishery that is already badly managed, so stocks are not in good shape, and you add another stressor like climate change heating it — well, then it just goes,” said Sumaila.
Eighty-four percent of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
That overfishing takes an astounding toll on the world economy, ecosystems and food security in areas that rely on fisheries as a cheap and reliable source of food.
Read the full article on the New Scientist website.