Climate change is impacting the oceans around Australia and is expected to increasingly do so into the future (Poloczanska et al 2007; Hobday and Lough 2011). Information on environmental state and biological relationships to the environment, coupled with climate, ocean and management projections, allow qualitative projections of future stock trajectories (e.g. Brown et al 2009). The climate change research to date has focussed on the relationship between known climate drivers like temperature, ocean currents, and the ecosystem. Very little assessment has been made to date at the intersection of climate change and the fisheries legislative framework and other marine planning and environmental legal instruments. Whilst there may be negative impacts, there will also be opportunities for growth in some sectors, which may be prevented by inefficiencies in the supply chain, or by policies that do not enable opportunities to be realized. Thus, assessment across the value chain could allow realisation of the potential benefits and minimise the losses for Australian fisheries as a result of climate change. Importantly, this will allow identification of elements within the supply chain where climate impacts can be reduced, and where policy can be developed to implement reduction measures. Analysis of selected fisheries across their value chain, for social, economic and biological barriers and enablers will inform other fisheries. This project formally includes the stakeholders - fisheries management agencies - and will coordinate activities and findings in concert with the existing regional fishery climate change programs.

References
Brown et al (2009) Effects of climate-driven primary production change on marine food webs: implications for fisheries and conservation. Global Change Biology
Poloczanska et al (2007) Climate Change And Australian Marine Life. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Review
Hobday AJ, Lough J (2011) Projected climate change in Australian marine and freshwater environments. Marine and Freshwater Research.

Climate change is already impacting species from a range of trophic levels around Australia. In recent years, shifts in species distribution have been documented at a range of lower trophic levels in Australia (Hobday et al 2007), including phytoplankton (Thompson et al 2009), intertidal invertebrates (Pitt et al 2010), and coastal fish (Last et al 2010), and are now underpinning management responses. However, for Australia’s iconic higher trophic level conservation-dependent marine taxa, such as seabirds (and shorebirds) and marine mammals, there is a knowledge gap regarding responses to climate variability and change. These species are protected throughout Australia and in some cases are recovering from previous anthropogenic impacts. Resolution of climate change impacts from other anthropogenic threats is needed for these species, in order to implement appropriate and timely adaptive management responses. Unfortunately, for most species, evidence of responses to environmental variability and the functional processes driving these affects is limited (but see References in Attachment 1). This is seen by managers as a major impediment to ongoing conservation management and planning in the face of climate variability and change. In addition, monitoring approaches for some of these species may also need to be reassessed and modified in order to better detect the impacts of climate change. Efficient ongoing monitoring is also required to allow adaptation responses to be validated. Results from this proposal will support adaptation by researchers undertaking the monitoring and adaptation by managers. Furthermore, options for enhancing the adaptive capacity of species impacted by climate change will fostered as a result of this project. (References provided in Attachment 1).