Record Details

The Relationship between Climate Change, Sardine Abundance and Commercial Fisheries Production in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem

ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

Field Value
Title The Relationship between Climate Change, Sardine Abundance and Commercial Fisheries Production in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem
Names Hotte, Ngaio (creator)
Herrick, Sam (creator)
Norton, Jerrold (creator)
Date Issued 2012 (iso8601)
Note Abstract Only
Abstract Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) has exhibited extreme sensitivity in its abundance and distribution in the face of decadal-scale climate regime changes. Warm regimes enhance the abundance of Pacific sardine and expand its distribution. Cold regimes lessen the abundance and restrict the distribution. For instance, between the late 1940s and 1970s, a cold regime shift in the California current system, combined with overfishing by excess fishing effort, resulted in the collapse of Pacific sardine resource. As abundance decreased, the spatial availability for commercial fisheries shifted from a wide range - Canada (British Columbia), U.S. (Washington, Oregon, California) and Mexico (Baja California), to the limited Southern region - Southern California and Mexico. The collapse of the sardine resource not only affected their fisheries, but also fisheries for higher trophic level species of commercial, recreational and ecological importance. Based on observations over the last century we investigate the linkages between climate variability, the sardine resource and commercial fisheries production within the CCE. We use these findings to herald the impacts of global climate change on commercial fisheries production within the CCE.
Genre Other
Topic Fisheries Economics
Identifier Hotte, N., Herrick, S. & Norton, J. Visible Possibilities: The Economics of Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture and Seafood Trade: Proceedings of the Sixteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 16-20, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Edited by Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2012.

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