Preface by the Australian Government
Climate change will increasingly impact upon Australian fisheries and aquaculture over coming decades. A National Approach to Addressing Marine Biodiversity Decline, endorsed by the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council in April 2008, recognises climate change as one of five key broad-scale threats to marine biodiversity. Changes to environmental variables such as ocean temperature, currents, winds, nutrient supply, rainfall, ocean chemistry and extreme weather conditions are likely to have significant impacts on marine ecosystems. As a result, climate change will pose challenges and present opportunities to the industries that rely on the marine environment.
In its Fourth Assessment Report 2007, the IPCC found that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal" and that levels of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750. These changes have altered the energy balance in the atmosphere, resulting in a warming effect.
Recent Australian projections of climate change provide further details to those provided in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Working Group II report. In its Climate change in Australia: technical report 2007, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) concluded that by 2030, the best estimate of sea surface temperature rise is 0.6 – 0.9 °C in the Southern Tasman Sea and the north-west shelf of Western Australia, and 0.3 - 0.6°C elsewhere.
The Australian Government commissioned CSIRO to review the potential impacts of climate change on Australia's fisheries and aquaculture. Completed before the release of the Climate change in Australia: technical report 2007, the report provides a preliminary assessment of the state of knowledge of the implications of climate change for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia.
This review identifies that there are likely to be significant climate change impacts on the biological, economic, and social aspects of Australian fisheries and finds that there is little consolidated knowledge of the potential impacts of climate change. Both positive and negative impacts are expected, and impacts will vary according to changes in the regional environment: south-east fisheries are most likely to be affected by changes in water temperature, northern fisheries by changes in precipitation, and western fisheries by changes in the Leeuwin Current.
There may be new opportunities for some wild fisheries where tropical species shift southward. There will also be many challenges, such as that faced by the Tasmanian salmon aquaculture industry due to Atlantic salmon being cultivated close to their upper thermal limits of optimal growth. Nevertheless, the report also highlights that there is potential for adaptation measures to be employed by the industry.
The report also notes the need for fisheries and aquaculture management policies to better integrate the effects of climate variability and climate change in establishing harvest levels and developing future strategies. This will enhance the resilience of marine biodiversity and the adaptive capacity of the fisheries and aquaculture industries.
Findings from this review will help inform the development of a National Climate Change and Fisheries Action Plan, a priority action of the National Climate Change Adaptation Framework endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in 2007. The Action Plan is being developed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in consultation with fishery managers and the commercial, aquaculture and recreational fishing sectors, and is due for completion in 2008. The objective of the Action Plan is to assist fishers from all fishing sectors to adapt to unavoidable impacts of, and, where relevant, mitigate the effects of their operations on, climate change.
The Australian Government is investing $126 million over five years in climate change adaptation policies, programs and research, including the development of national adaptation research plans for key sectors. Through the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, a National Adaptation Research Plan for Marine Biodiversity and Resources will be developed in 2008 to provide a national statement of research priorities that need to be addressed to enhance the capacity of marine and fisheries managers to adapt to climate change.
In addition, the Australian Government is providing $130 million over four years to help primary producers adapt and respond to climate change through the Australia's Farming Future initiative. A further $44 million is being invested in a CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship. These initiatives will position Australia to manage risks arising from the impacts of climate change and will rely on strong partnerships between governments and decision makers in industries and communities in all sectors.