Publication Abstract

Ocean acidification and fisheries: fish fry or fried fish?

W.J.F. Le Quesne*

Emissions of CO₂ from human activities are acidifying the oceans. Animals and plants living in the oceans will be exposed to a reduction in ocean pH at a rate, and to an extent, not seen in 10s of millions of years. This has lead to concerns that ocean acidification (OA) could have negative impacts on marine life and the benefits society derives from the seas, including fisheries.

The direct biological impacts of OA occur at the cellular level, however it is the expression of these effects at the population and ecosystem level, and their interaction with the socio-economic status of fishing communities that is of societal concern. The productivity of commercial stocks depends upon both the physiological status of target species and the ecological setting within which they occur. Thus scaling up from physiological experiments to predicting population and ecosystem level effects requires explicit consideration of ecology as well as physiology. Determining the resulting impact this has on fishing businesses and communities requires further socio-economic assessments of the economic status of fisheries and the capacity for adaptation within fisheries and markets to changes in resource productivity.

Reference:

W.J.F. Le Quesne (2011) Ocean acidification and fisheries: fish fry or fried fish? Ocean Challenge (Challenger Society magazine) 18 (1-2) 38-43