Implications of climate change on fisheries resources of northern Australia Part 1: Vulnerability assessment and adaptation options

Abstract

Climate change is a major environmental threat and there is a national imperative to determine likely impacts on fisheries in Australia. Northern Australia is predicted to be affected by increased water temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and resultant increases in river flows to the marine environment, increased intensity of cyclones, ocean acidification, and altered current patterns, which will also affect habitats. These changes will directly and indirectly impact on fishery species including modified phenology and physiology, altered ranges and distributions, composition and interactions within communities, and fisheries catch rates.

For fishery sectors in northern Australia to be able to respond positively and adapt to climate-induced changes on fish stocks there is a need to determine which stocks, and where, when and how they are likely to be affected, and prioritise species for further actions. This project set out to do this using a structured approach to develop and carry out a semi-quantitative vulnerability assessment and conduct stakeholder workshops to identify adaptation options. These outputs were informed by several tasks: a descriptions of past and future climate; identify likely impacts of climate change on habitats and key fishery species; detailed species profiles to document and understand key fisheries, species life histories, and sensitivity to environmental variability (see Part 2 companion report); and analyses of existing data sets of key species to better understand sensitivity to environmental change.