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.
