We are seeing climate change play out in real-time in the form of sea level rise, here in Charleston, SC and the rest of the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia. In Montana, there have been Hoot Owl Restrictions the last couple of years due to stream temperatures being too hot to fish for trout. The Gulf of Maine is noticeably warming resulting in shifts in migratory patterns. The list goes on, but my point is that our planet, oceans, and rivers are warming, and the impact of climate change on our fisheries is becoming increasingly obvious.

Just from observation, and from conversations I have had with Fly Fishing Climate Alliance members, as well as guests on The Sustainable Angler podcast, I can tell you that climate change is impacting our fisheries in a number of different ways, such as less snowpack, drought, wildfires, sea level rise, ocean acidification and others. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who is the scientific group assembled by the United Nations to monitor and assess all global science related to climate change, reports that the following impact will result from climate change on our fisheries:

1. Climate impact on our fisheries will be particularly high in tropical regions, where reductions in catch are expected to be among the largest globally, leading to negative economic and social effects for fishing communities and with implications for the supply of fish and shellfish.
2. The ecological impacts of climate change on fisheries species have already emerged, including loss of habitats for fisheries species and poleward shifts in the distribution of barrens-forming urchins.
3. Climate change also impacts fisheries in small islands resulting from ocean temperature change, SLR, extreme weather patterns such as cyclones, reducing ocean oxygen concentrations and ocean acidification.
4. These combined pressures are leading to the widespread loss or damage to marine habitats such as coral reefs but also mangroves and seagrass beds and consequently of important fish species that depend on these habitats and are crucial both to the food security and incomes of island communities.
5. Climate change is also expected to decrease total productive fisheries potential in South and Southeast Asia, driven by a temperature increase of approximately 2°C by 2050.
6. There is medium confidence that climate change will create new fishing opportunities when exploited fish stocks shift their distribution into new fishing regions in enclosed seas, such as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
7. However, in general, where land barriers constrain the latitudinal shifts, the expected impacts of climate change are population declines and reduced productivity.
8. Besides direct impacts on the abundance of fisheries-targeted species, climate-change-induced proliferation of invasive species could also affect fisheries’ productivity. Source: (IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter05, Page 8; IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter10, Page 35; IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter11, Page 36; IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter15, Page 57)

Want to know what is an 100% effective way to stop the negative impact of climate change on our fisheries? Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Do we need policy change to effect the systemic change necessary to scale climate solutions? Absolutely, but in the meantime, that doesn’t absolve anyone from reducing their personal or business carbon footprint. Understandably, not every person or business can afford solar on their roof, but we can collectively do whatever we can, because at this point, every ton of CO2 reduced matters.