A new study examines different ways climate change could affect West Coast sardines and evaluates how well fishing rules and dynamic management will work when ocean conditions change
Sardines have long been managed under a harvest control rule tied to average sea surface temperatures, which are thought to influence sardine numbers. The rule adjusts catch limits as temperatures change. However, there are now signs that climate-driven changes in the productivity of the West Coast offshore ecosystem may also impact sardine numbers.
Scientists at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center assessed whether management measures for the sardine fishery will still be effective if climate change alters the productivity of the species.
“The goal as climate change continues is to develop information and tools that help fishery managers stay on top of the changes,” said Robert Wildermuth, lead author of the new management strategy evaluation for the West Coast sardine fishery. The evaluation tests different strategies by modeling how they would play out under varying conditions including the shifts in ocean conditions accompanying climate change…