Except a drastic action is taken, fish and other aquatic foods run the risk of been driven to extinction by climate change. This warning came from the Food and Agriculture Organization, a unit of the United Nations, UNO. According to the organisation, new projections have shown that climate change poses serious risks to marine ecosystems and the animals they support.
The warning is contained in the report that was released in commemoration of the 36th Committee on Fisheries (COFI36), which ends Saturday July 12. It was a session to drive solutions to the persisting global food insecurity and hunger, fish biomass for nearly all regions of the world’s ocean, including top producing countries and those with high reliance on aquatic foods.
The report produced by the Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP) projects that exploitable fish biomass declined more than 10 per cent, particularly under the high-emissions scenario, by mid-century for many regions of the world.
The report reads “By the end of the century, under the high-emissions scenario, which projects global warming of 3 to 4°c, declines worsen to 30 per cent or greater in 48 countries and territories.
“Under the low-emissions scenario, which projects global warming of 1.5 to 2°C, changes stabilize between no change and a decrease of 10 per cent or less across 178 countries and territories by the end of the century.
“Notable declines include those for top fish producer nations, which worsen towards the end of the century under the high-emissions scenario, for example, 37.3 per cent for Peru’s and 30.9 per cent for China’s Exclusive Economic Zones but stabilize under the low-emissions scenario”.
The decline is coming just as the world was still celebrating an earlier report of increase in production. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) had reported that world fisheries and aquaculture production hit a new high of 223.2 million tonnes in 2022.
But the alarm raised by FAO, through its Assistant Director-General and Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division Manuel Barange, indicates that report of possible extinction of the aquatic animals was real. He, therefore, suggest a thorough understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and their fisheries, as well as their associated uncertainties. This, he said, was crucial to designing adaptation programmes at appropriate scales.
He said, “Lower emissions significantly reduce end-of-century biomass losses for nearly all countries and territories compared to the high-emissions scenario. This highlights the benefits of climate change mitigation measures for fisheries and aquatic foods”.
The report also pointed out that to address the issue a more holistic view of managing marine natural resources in the face of climate change was necessary. This would also involve allowing for trade-offs across sectors, including adaptive fisheries management and wider agrifood policies.
