The catch of the day is… extinct?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
In the last eighty years, wild seafood stocks have decreased by up to thirty-five percent. Rising sea temperatures aren’t helping!
Fish are cold-blooded animals, which means they adapt to the temperature of their environment. When the water gets too warm, their body functions start to fail. This impairs growth and reproduction, leading to a decline in population.
Christopher Free from Rutgers University is fishing for a solution. He created a computer model to predict the way fish populations respond to rising temperatures.
His model identified stocks like Atlantic cods that will perish due to warming temperatures. BUT, he also found some fish species that actually might thrive!
For example, with each degree Celsius of warming, Greenland halibut populations increase over fifty percent! Warming waters will bring them CLOSER to an ideal temperature for population growth.
Free hopes that this model can be used to identify the most sustainable fisheries. That way, the fishing industry can give more endangered populations a break.
Sorry, Charley! There’s nothing fishy about wanting sustainable seafood!