Climate change presents substantial challenges to fisheries worldwide, through impacts such as shifting fish stocks and more frequent and powerful extreme weather events. With these changes already occurring and projected to increase in their prevalence and scale, fishing communities and stakeholders globally must act to ensure that they are prepared to meet the challenges ahead.
UK fisheries are far from immune to the threats presented by our changing climate, with six of the ten European fishing regions at the highest climate risk being found here on home shores, particularly in the north of England. This is largely due to predicted changes in the abundance and behaviour of the stocks typically landed in these regions, combined with low GDP per capita in some areas.
The need to increase fisheries resilience to the climate crisis is apparent, but the UK is not alone in facing what lies ahead. Experiences from those already tackling such challenges overseas can offer wisdom and practical experience that may prove invaluable in guiding the UK’s own efforts to adapt and build resilience to the challenges ahead.
Ahead of our next event, on July 12, “Climate Resilience: Lessons from Abroad”, this article presents five case studies from around the world, which can offer insights into the creative and pioneering ways that countries and communities are boosting their resilience to the changing climate.
Please note that the APPG on Fisheries Secretariat is independently managed, and does not speak on behalf of the government. If you wish to quote any of the APPG’s publications, please get in touch.
1- Eastern USA – Stock Assessments and Environmental Parameters
Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) encourages the incorporation of data from the physical environment into regulatory decision-making. In 2017, NOAA’s assessment of American butterfish on the east coast of the United States integrated water temperature into its stock assessment, becoming one of the first organisations to do so.
Prior to this, the assessments for butterfish had a high degree of uncertainty due to the fish being known to shift their distribution according to the bottom temperature of the water. This was recognised to cause inaccuracies in surveys, as assessments varied depending on the temperature of the water that transects ran through. Sustainable catch limits were therefore set at intentionally low levels as a precautionary measure. However, by incorporating temperature into assessments, scientists were able to gain a more accurate estimation of butterfish numbers, declare most stocks as rebuilt, and increase catch limits for the species. The increased accuracy of this assessment therefore enabled fishermen to catch more fish, without exceeding the maximum sustainable yield.
The inclusion of environmental parameters in stock assessments is not without its challenges, however. Climate-induced changes to marine ecosystems are likely to be complex and interwoven, and not all species will be as closely tied to a single environmental factor as butterfish are. More research is therefore required before this type of assessment becomes widely practical. However, with climate change already altering the distribution of fish stocks, accounting for changes in environmental variables offers a promising new means of accurately assessing sustainable catch levels.
Boston, USA
2- The Caribbean Islands – Increasing Fishermen’s Safety Through Technology and Insurance
The changing environmental conditions predicted to result from climate change don’t just present challenges to fisheries management - they also present very real dangers to the safety of fishermen, due to the increasing number of storms that they face. This phenomenon is already making itself apparent in the Caribbean, a region especially vulnerable to climate-exacerbated extreme weather events.
In order to protect Caribbean fishermen’s safety at sea, a mobile phone application, developed by the ICT4Fisheries Consortium, was rolled out across the islands. The FEWER (Fisheries Early Warning and Emergency Response) app sends early warning alerts for approaching bad weather conditions or unfavourable sea states, and also allows users to input their local weather conditions and report missing persons.
Additionally, Saint Lucia and Grenada have recently piloted a new insurance scheme for fishermen, which aims to increase their safety and increase the industry's resilience to climatic events. The index-based insurance scheme pays out in the event of bad weather, compensating for lost income and allowing fishermen to stay out of harm's way. The scheme also pays for damaged fishing equipment.
While risks to UK fishermen are different to those in the Caribbean Islands, recent research in Cornwall, by the University of Exeter, found that the combination of increasingly extreme weather and the economic instability which Cornish fishermen face are creating the “perfect storm” for risk-taking behaviour among fishermen in the region, potentially endangering skippers and crews. In addition to recommending that the safety of boats is improved and less vulnerable fishing methods are supported, the researchers also suggest that the creation of insurance products for fishermen may increase their safety. The Caribbean scheme may, therefore, provide a model on which to assess the suitability of such a scheme in the UK.
Caribbean
3- Australia – Stakeholder Perspectives and the Supply Chain
The perspectives of fisheries stakeholders recently provided useful insight into climate adaptations in Australia, when researchers investigating the industry’s resilience found a need for more holistic adaptation planning along the entire length of the supply chain.
Within the study, stakeholders along the seafood supply chain, as well as industry experts, were found to be heavily focused on the capture phase - a theme which is echoed within scientific literature and the media. The paper points out that harvesting the fish is only the first step, and that research priorities and policies also need to consider climate adaptations in the processing, distribution, and marketing phases of the chain.
The need for adaptation along the supply chain is likely to be echoed in the UK, as processing methods may need to change according to the species of fish and shellfish being landed in an area, and novel marketing strategies may be required to take advantage of the opportunities presented by range shifts of new and less common species into the UK’s waters.
This Australian study also found that public perceptions of fisheries goods were linked to climate change. As such, increased energy efficiency along the whole supply chain is likely to be of increasing importance to consumers. The UK is already supporting energy reduction for vessels as an objective under its new English Fisheries and Seafood Scheme but the Australian research suggests that even greater mitigation and resilience might be achieved by scaling this to include the supply chain as a whole.
Wollongong, Australia
4- Angola, Namibia, and South Africa – An Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management
The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) is an upwelling ecosystem that stretches along the coastlines of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. The current represents one of Earth's most biodiverse marine habitats, and its fish stocks are of great commercial importance to the three countries that border it.
Several challenges have faced the ecosystem throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, including the overexploitation of fish, which caused several stocks to collapse in the 1960s and 70s. This problem was exacerbated by lack of management cohesion between the three countries, each of whom was trying to independently regulate the exploitation of the ecosystem’s transboundary fish stocks.
In 2007, the Benguela Current Commission was established, providing a means by which the countries could work together to apply an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management within the area. The ecosystem-based approach has seen the three countries jointly and flexibly monitor, assess, and manage the stocks while maximising their resilience by balancing conservation priorities with the fair allocation of natural resources. While major fisheries yields in the BCLME are below historical values, catches have been stable for the last two decades.
The three countries' approach to shared decision-making is likely to become even more important as fish stocks shift their distributions due to climate change. This cooperative ecosystem-centred approach may, therefore, provide an example of a practical transnational framework that supports resilience to climate change, for separate management organisations regulating the catch of straddling, shifting, and migratory stocks.
Angola
5- The Philippines and the Mediterranean – Marine Protected Areas
While poorly planned Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can lead to conflict with the fishing industry, the most effective MPAs are collaboratively designed by all marine users affected, with fishers often a key stakeholder. MPAs in the UK have been shown to protect the coastline from severe weather events, and support the absorption and storage of carbon. They therefore present an opportunity to increase the UK’s resilience to climate change, as well as mitigating its effects. MPAs can also benefit fishermen, thanks to “spillover” of fishable biomass, and the movement of eggs and juvenile fish, from MPAs into their surrounding waters. (A review of research on this effect is available here.)
The AGCA Marine Sanctuary in the Philippines was established with the dual purpose of conserving marine biodiversity and improving the catch of local fishermen, whose catch had decreased by 80% between the 1960s and early 2000s. Two years after its establishment, fish biomass within the MPA had increased by around 70%, and compliance was high, with 83% of fishermen saying that they no longer fished within the no-take zone.
Key to the Sanctuary's success was the participation of local fishermen in its establishment and management. Fishermen worked alongside the municipal government and an NGO to launch a social marketing campaign, reaching out to 350 fishermen and the wider community to address concerns regarding its existence. In addition, the local government offered a stipend for a number of wardens (often fishermen), and paid for a patrol boat and guardhouse. This co-managed approach is now being replicated across many other sites throughout the Philippines.
Closer to home, research that assessed 26 MPAs (mostly across the Mediterranean) found that the engagement of fishermen was the most important factor contributing to their effective management, thus further demonstrating the importance of collaboration and inclusion when establishing these areas. According to the above research, well-managed MPAs demonstrated an increase or stabilisation in catch per unit effort.
While their use and location must be carefully considered, these case studies demonstrate that by including fisheries stakeholders in conversations regarding the establishment and management of MPAs, they can provide a piece of the climate resilience puzzle in a way that can be of direct benefit to fishermen. For further reading about the interactions between MPAs and fisheries, the paper “Marine protected areas and fisheries: bridging the divide”, provides a thorough review of the effectiveness of this collaborative approach.
It is also worth noting that MPAs must, themselves, be designed and managed with climate resilience in mind. A growing body of research is investigating the potential of “dynamic” or “mobile” MPAs, which are designed to move in response to predicted shifts in species distributions. While this is still an emerging field of study, some modelling suggests that the impacts of these mobile MPAs are complex and may impact commercial fish species in different ways. Further research may be warranted, if they are to be considered as a means of increasing the UK fishing industry’s resilience to climate change.
Philippines
As our climate continues to change and the need to build resilience into the UK’s fisheries increases, other countries’ experiences can offer insight into ways in which the UK can further improve its own strategies. Our next event, “Climate Resilience: Lessons from Abroad” will take place on July 12, and will host a number of international speakers, each of whom will be sharing their experience of building fisheries’ climate resilience in their own countries.
Sign up for this online event here.