Climate is variable. Primary producers deal with this variability on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. However, there is strong evidence that shows that there is fundamental shift in the variability of the earth’s climate.
Significant climate change is not a new concept for the earth – there have been many instances over time of significant change. What is different about the current change is it is well above the upper limits of the historical changes. This change is attributed to human activity in the form of greenhouse gas emissions.

The two options available to address the affects of climate change are adaptation and mitigation. While fisheries make only a minimal direct contribution to greenhouse gas emissions relative to other sectors, if carbon credits are built into energy usage, energy costs will significantly increase. Therefore, for mitigation, there will be an increased focus on alternative fuels and energy efficiency. This aside, the main focus for Australian fisheries will be adaptation to the possible impacts rather than on mitigation. The problem will be ensuring each of the fisheries sectors are economically and ecologically viable while adapting to the long term effects of climate change on the marine ecosystems that support them.

Given our knowledge gaps on the nature of the impacts of climate change on Australian fisheries, climate change needs to be considered in the context that it is just one business risk. As such climate change needs to begin to be factored into business planning along with other risks, such as competition, skills availability, currency fluctuations etc. This is certainly true within the framework of ecosystem based fisheries management (EBFM), where climate is just one of the variables considered.

The questions for Government are:
• Where should it invest its resources to assist the fishing industry adapt to climate change?
• What policy changes are needed to support this adaptation?
• How to develop a predictive capacity to inform decision making?

Obviously, the decisions of individuals are beyond the control of Government. However, governments can provide the business environment through appropriate policy settings such that those involved in fishing can make decisions about future adaptation strategies. And this is where R&D is important. Industry needs knowledge so it can make informed decisions on the risks that climate change poses to business/lifestyle/culture and adjust accordingly. Scientists, economists and policy makers advise that early adaptation will reduce the cost to industry and Government in the long term. Further, for some sectors, delays in adapting may result in those industries no longer having a sustainable resource base.

Governments will need to put in place an R&D and policy framework to support adaptation to climate change within fisheries. In the current absence of a specific climate change policy for fisheries there is an opportunity for R&D to get ahead of policy and perhaps inform it. However, in the first instance there is a need to determine current relevant R&D activities and available information and what the research needs and gaps are.

This last point is the objective of the status report – where is fisheries climate change R&D now and where does it need to be?