El Nemo Western Program
The Western Australia Program aims to prepare marine and estuarine fisheries, aquaculture, and conservation sectors, and their management frameworks to adapt to climate change. It is expected that the fresh water component of climate change, especially in the south west of WA, will be picked up by the Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan for Water Resources and Freshwater Biodiversity. This is vital for meeting the challenges and making the most of the opportunities ahead.
As with the other Region’s, this a program to foster coordinated across discipline research that underpins adaptation actions and answer priority questions. It builds upon the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan for Marine Biodiversity and Resources and the draft National Climate Change Action Plan for Fisheries and Aquaculture.
Climate change is expected to have considerable impacts on Western Australia aquatic life and ecosystems. These impacts will have flow on implications for businesses, communities and economies that are dependent on the aquatic environment and its resources.
A changing climate is predicted to result in changes to estuarine systems, sea levels, oceanic temperatures, stratification, currents (including wind and surface waves), composition of benthic habitats and water chemistry (including salinity and acidity). These will influence abundance, distribution and survival of species, population dynamics, timing of productivity stages and crustaceans’ ability to grow their shells. Evidence is growing that some of these changes are already occurring, and models predict that these trends will continue.
The program aims to improve our understanding, managing and adapting to the risks from climate change. It will equip businesses, communities and managers of the aquatic environment with knowledge to inform their decisions and adaptation strategies, and the need for flexible arrangements and frameworks to be more responsive to change.
It will apply to the recreational, commercial and indigenous fisheries, and conservation priorities and aquaculture sectors. It will cover both Commonwealth and State waters and the estuarine ecosystems in the Gascoyne and West Coast bioregions.
