NOAA Fisheries Climate-Related Science Activities
Our climate and oceans are changing, and these changes are impacting the nation’s valuable living marine resources. Understanding the impacts of changing climate and ocean acidification on marine and coastal ecosystems is critical to sustaining the nation’s living marine resources and the communities that depend on them.
NOAA Fisheries works with many partners to provide decision-makers with the information they need to prepare for and respond to changing ocean and coastal conditions such as warming oceans, loss of sea ice, rising seas, droughts, and ocean acidification.
Understanding Current and Future Climate Impacts
NOAA Fisheries conducts a variety of science activities (monitoring, research, modeling and assessments) to inform and fulfill the agency’s mission. This includes tracking current conditions, providing early warnings and forecasts, understanding the mechanisms of climate impacts, and projecting future conditions, evaluating possible options for fisheries management and protected resources conservation in a changing world. For more information on these efforts click on the links below.
Climate, Fisheries, and Protected Resources
Changing climate and oceans can have profound effects on marine resources and the many people who depend on them. Marine species tend to be highly mobile, and many are moving quickly toward the poles to stay cool as average ocean temperatures rise. These shifts can cause ecological disruptions as predators become separated from their prey. They can also cause economic disruptions if a fish population becomes less productive or moves out of range of the fishermen who catch them. Read more at NMFS Climate, Fisheries and Protected Resources.
