The fishing industry provides a majority of the world with its food, and provides their citizens with jobs. The fishing industry is the backbone of numerous countries across the world, and is yet another aspect that is being threatened by global warming. In an article published by the University of California they discuss the imminent impacts that global warming will have on these countries fishing industries.
The article conducted research of one-hundred and twenty-four fish species, in thirty-eight regions to see how the rising ocean temperatures are affecting the fish populations. They found that "8 percent of populations were significantly negatively impacted by warming, while 4 percent saw positive impacts. Overall, though the losses outweigh the gains." In their findings they found that a majority of fish populations were strongly affected by the ocean warming, and with the increasing rising temperatures of the oceans that the decrease in fish populations will only get worse.
The researchers also found correlations within the regions that the fish were native to. They concluded that "species in the same region tended to respond in similar ways. Fishes in the same families also showed similarities in how they responded to changed. The researchers reasoned that related species would have similar traits and lifecycles, giving them similar strengths and vulnerabilities." Since a majority of the fish that inhabit similar regions are from the same or similar families the ocean warming will have a big impact on those regions fishing industries. They may have to outsource their food source, and find some other industry to support their economy.
While the countries that will be most affected by these decrease in fish populations are "the sea of Japan, North sea, Iberian Coastal, Kuroshio current, and Celtic-Biscay shelf ecoregions." While some of the increases in fish populations will occur in "Labrador-Newfoundland region, Baltic Sea, Indian Ocean, and Northeastern United States." So far the changes in fisheries productivity have been small there have been vast regional discrepancies, and will only occur more often if we do not do something to combat climate change. The researchers found that "East Asia has seen some of the largest warming-driven declines, with 15 to 35 percent reductions in fisheries productivity. This means 15 to 35 percent less fish available for food and employment in a region with some of the fastest growing human populations in the world." Overall, the impacts that the rising ocean temperatures is slowly having an impact on fishing dependent countries, and if we do not attempt to try and reduce this issue it will soon affect the worlds economy.
This article is highlighting the problem of decreased fish populations in fishing dependent countries, but is also hinting at a bigger problem; climate change. While the decrease fisheries productivity is an issue that needs to be death with the article is trying to highlight the why in this issue. In this case the why is climate change. It's putting a new issue at the hands of climate change to show people that climate change affects every aspect of our lives. The audience should care about it because the earth we live on, the food we eat, and the space in which we live is all rapidly dying and it is because of our lifestyle. While I am guilty of enjoying my modern lifestyle as a society we need to focus on being able to live a cleaner version of it so that in fifty years we still have a place to live.
While the solution to climate change is not small it can start with a small group of people. Moving to the use of clean energy, focusing on recycling more of our materials, and finding a way to maintain different ecosystems are small parts of a big problem that our society is facing. I think this article does a very good job of portraying its message because it shows an issue that not a lot of people know about, and connecting it to climate change. The intended audience for this article is anyone who will read it, and wants to know about the effects of climate change. One thing that could do to improve this article is highlight the long-term impacts. It talks a lot about what's going on right now, but I wish they would have talked about what would happen if we continued on the path were on.
