Trawling for Peace in a Warming Planet
Publisher: UN Environment
Date: 2018
Topics: Climate Change, Disasters, Renewable Resources
From the South China Sea to the English Channel, Lake Victoria to the Pacific Ocean, the last few decades have seen increased competition for fish stocks. Unlike many other agricultural products which are stationary, many species of fish are highly migratory across various maritime boundaries.
Annually, more than 80 million metric tons of seafood is harvested from the oceans, providing nearly 3 billion people with more than 20 per cent of their animal protein needs and sustaining the livelihoods of 10 per cent of the global population. However, research published in the journal Science warns that climate change is already compromising these benefits through changes in stock productivity and location.
The authors of the article titled Preparing ocean governance for species on the move, published in June, say that while there is considerable scope to increase global fisheries yield, conservation and profitability by improving current fishery management, climate change could compromise these potential upside benefits through changes in stock productivity distribution.
They caution that shifting species have caused conflict domestically and between countries that historically had close ties.