Nereus director (science) William Cheung (UBC) is a co-author with others on a new study published in the open access journal PLoS ONE, entitled “Potential socioeconomic impacts from ocean acidification and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian Fisheries.” Focusing on ‘Atlantic Canada’, which encompasses the provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and in this study Quebec, the authors investigated the impacts that ocean acidification (OA) and climate change may have on the future of fisheries in the region. The authors point out this is a concern, because these provinces are responsible for a majority of Canada’s seafood production, comprising 80% of landings and greater than 85% of Canada’s commercial fishing fleet. Therefore, any potential negative impacts due to OA and climate change may have implications for the mainly rural communities’ economies, many of which may rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. With shellfish becoming increasingly important to the region (accounting for approximately 50% of regional landings), and OA potentially harmful to their shell development, these communities are particularly at risk. The authors used biophysical impact modeling efforts to assess OA’s impacts on shellfish in the region, also incorporating how climate change may be driving other marine species abundances and distributions to shift, which “will add to and potentially interact with OA effects.” In addition to those efforts, the authors constructed an impact assessment framework to gauge the socioeconomic impacts the region may face if fisheries landings change due to OA and climate change. By combining these two efforts, the authors were able to use a biophysical model to inform the “exposure and hazard components of the [socioeconomic impact assessment] framework.” In essence, they used a biophysical model to directly apply expected impacts from climate change and OA onto regional fisheries, thereby allowing “the change in fisheries landings to be incorporated into the [socioeconomic] framework.” To find out more, you can access and read the article using the below link.

The above description was summarized from the reference below

Reference:

Wilson, T.J.B., Cooley, S.R., Tai, T.C., Cheung, W.W.L., & Tyedmers, P.H. (2020). Potential socioeconomic impacts from ocean acidification and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian fisheries. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0226544. link