Do fishers follow fish displaced by climate warming?

This study investigates whether fishers follow fish displaced by climate warming. Using a long-term, high-resolution dataset of the Atlantic cod fishery in Norway and an oceanographic model, the researchers assessed whether areas suitable for cod spawning overlapped with observed fishing locations. While spawning suitability predicted catch per trip, it did not predict the number of vessels in a given area, suggesting that fishers' behavior is influenced more by past fishing locations than by current fish distribution. Future climate change projections should account for the nuanced behavioral responses of fishers.

Keita Abe, Florian Diekert, Arne Melsom, Øystein Langangen