Climate-Ready Fisheries

Climate change is throwing the ocean out of balance, posing an existential threat to the future of our fisheries.

From warming waters to ocean acidification, the climate crisis is fundamentally changing the ocean, jeopardizing the ability of fish to grow and thrive, and ultimately affecting fish populations.
We saw this in real time last year when billions of snow crabs vanished due to marine heat waves in the Bering Sea, causing a full closure of the fishery for two years in a row.
This significantly affects our ability to produce food, sustain communities, and provide recreational opportunities for people to enjoy.

While there has been recent progress to build the Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI) to scale up climate science at the agency, NOAA Fisheries needs to put these findings into practice at the regional management level.
Last year, the GAO reported that most fishery management plans do not consider climate change and many managers were unaware of climate initiatives that NOAA and other councils are implementing to build resilience.
Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act can help bridge this gap by investing in the climate tools and information that fishery managers urgently need to protect the health of the ocean and the coastal communities that rely on resilient fisheries.
The recently announced $20 million investment to help regional councils address climate impacts is a positive step forward, but much more is needed to fully address the need.
Sustainable management is a cornerstone of making fisheries climate ready, and much work is still needed to ensure healthy fisheries. Nearly a fifth of fish stocks are overfished, and some stocks face chronic overfishing.

Now is the time for the Biden administration to ramp up current efforts to build climate-ready fisheries and protect coastal communities and ocean habitats.
Fishery managers and fishing communities need climate tools and information to manage fisheries to be resilient to climate change.
NOAA Fisheries must develop and disseminate guidance that can help spur the on-the-water changes needed to prepare fisheries for climate change.

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