Menu favorites such as haddock and lemon sole may soon disappear from our plates thanks to warmer oceans.
A new study published in Nature Climate Change has found that some fish species will be unable to move away from the rapidly warming water due to depth and habitat constraints.
Researchers from the University of Exeter developed a computer model that combined long-term fisheries datasets and climate model projections to predict the abundance and distribution of some favorite food fish over the next 50 years.
The study oncentrates on the North Sea region in particular as its temperature has increased four times faster than the global average in the last 40 years, making it a ‘hot bed’ for climate change. This is bad news for cold loving fish species like haddock which needs an ocean temperature of 36 to 50°F to survive.
Dr Steve Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology & Global Change at the University of Exeter, said the findings are important for both consumers and the fishing industry: “We will see a real changing of the guard in the next few decades. Our models predict cold water species will be squeezed out, with warmer water fish likely to take their place. For sustainable UK fisheries, we need to move on from haddock & chips and look to Southern Europe for our gastronomic inspiration.”
