Eighth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Rising sea temperatures and acidification of ocean waters are altering marine ecosystems and profoundly impacting the populations and ranges of commercially-valuable fish species. These repercussions of anthropogenic climate change are creating both winners and losers in the short term, but the long-term consequences are dire for both the global fishing industry and marine ecosystems. Using a case-study approach, this paper will consider the impacts of climate change on the national fisheries management systems of five countries—Iceland, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States. Each case study will explore the short-term consequences of changing oceans, and will also project the longer-term implications of increasingly warm and acidic marine ecosystems. The paper will then account for the current political structures of fisheries management in each case, and recommend governance responses to the challenges posed by a changing climate. The paper aims both to set forth context-specific climate adaptation recommendations for the five chosen case studies, and to model the kind of holistic analysis that might be used to create recommendations for other national or regional contexts.