A partnership between fishers and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) will help both fishers and scientist become more aware of the impacts of climate change on coastal fish species.
By using records from over 50 years of fishing competitions, CSIRO scientists are hoping to determine changes in the distribution of fish along the south-east Australian coast due to increasing water temperatures, and the impact it will have on recreational fishers and coastal communities.
“Long-term, statistically robust datasets of marine species are rarely available, so scientists are turning to novel, high-quality datasets such as those from spearfishing clubs to fill this knowledge gap. Spearfishing competition data sheets are a historical ‘biodiversity inventory’ for recreational fish species,” explained CSIRO Ichthyologist Daniel Gledhill.
Water temperatures off the coast of Tasmania are warming three to four times faster than the global average and “geographic extensions of species ranges are already being recorded for recreationally targeted species in Australian waters,’ said Gledhill.
You can read the full press release here: Fishers and scientists examine the past to understand a changing marine environment.
Copyright © 2012 by Marine Science Today, a publication of Marine Science Today LLC.