In the last post I said it was difficult to quantify climatic effects on the fishing industry, well here are some ways we can attempt to do so to maximise fish yield and sustainability. To fully assess the extent to which climate change affects the fishing industry in Africa, said industry must be examined using a range of attributes and indicators... (Belhabib, 2016)
Mean temperature of catch: is the average temperature preference of exploited species weighted by their annual catch. This indicator can be used to highlight the fact that most of the taxonomy of fisheries from 1970 to 2006 is significantly related to changes in ocean temperature with clear dominance of warm water species. (Belhabib, 2016) This form of measuring shows an amalgamation of changes in alterations of species distribution and shifts in target species. The latter displays how well fishermen adapt to changes in fish stocks.
Invasion and local extinction rates: Invasion represents the extent to which species spread out to new habitats whilst local extinction is where a species doesn't exist anymore in its previous habitat. I like the fact that one can express local extinction and invasion as proportion of the initial species richness. These indicators both work together in delivering the effects of climate change on biodiversity and composition of resources available to fisheries. (Belhabib, 2016) The ultimate result of this technique is that it displays how exposed fisheries are to impacts of climatic change and thus what they have to adapt to.
Catch Potential change: indicates the [projected change in catch potential by 2050 by primarily envisioning future species distribution ranges and then figuring out the catch potential. This measure is the most useful for establishing losses in potential catches.
Main target prices: are all species that make up over 9% of artisinal and industrial catches between 1970 and 2010. (Belhabib, 2016)This represents the catches of the highest value. The method is useful as it illustrates a profile of each fishery. Moreover, the target specie soften indicates preferences within the fishery such as gear type and discard levels.
Status of fishery: is a pretty straightforward one and arguably the most important through its sheer simplicity - it shows actual known exploitation levels. This is useful for gauging the extent of over-exploitation and depletion of fish stocks which may amplify the all ready reductionist way of climate change on fish populations. Furthermore, this helps separate the over exploitation impacts on fish stocks with the natural climatic effects of fish stocks. (Belhabib, 2016)
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