In partnership with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Science and Technology, CPO’s Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications (COCA) program competitively awarded seven grants projects in FY 2015 focused on increasing the understanding of climate-related impacts on fish stocks and fisheries. The roughly $5 million in grants cover a two- to three-year time period.
Warming oceans, rising seas, ocean acidification, and hypoxia are impacting America’s marine life and the many people, businesses, communities and economies that depend on them. Climate-related impacts can affect the abundance, distribution, and productivity of fish stocks. Fishermen, seafood processors, fishery managers and other decision makers need more information on current and future changes to better prepare and respond
To address these issues, a new collaboration between the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the National Marine Fisheries Service has been developed to advance understanding of current and future climate-related impacts on living marine resources and the communities that depend on them. The goal is to inform sustainable management and resilience of the nation’s fisheries in a changing climate.
The research awarded under this new funding opportunity will begin to provide critical advances in understanding and projection of climate-related impacts and addresses key information needs for management and stewardship to inform sustainable management of fisheries. Six projects support research to understand and respond to climate impacts on fish and fisheries in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem and the seventh will support a workshop focused on ecosystem tipping points in the North Pacific. While this first funding opportunity emphasized the Northeast region, it is hoped additional funding will be available in the future to expand this effort to other regions.
The seven new projects include:
- Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI): “Evaluating Social-Ecological Vulnerability and Climate Adaptation Strategies for Northeast U.S. Fishing Communities,”
- Lead Principal Investigator (PI): Katherine Mills (Gulf of Maine Research Institute),
- Co-PIs: Jenny Sun (GMRI), Steve Eayrs (GMRI), Jonathan Labaree (GMRI), Troy Hartley (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), Jon Hare (Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory), Lisa Colburn (Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory), Eric Thunberg (NOAA Fisheries)
- University of Rhode Island: “Robust harvest strategies for responding to climate induced changes in fish productivity,”
- Lead Principal Investigator (PI): Jeremy Collie (University of Rhode Island)
- Co-PIs: Jon Hare (Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory), Richard Bell (Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory), David Richardson (Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory)
- Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council: “Climate velocity over the 21st century and its implications for fisheries management in the Northeast U.S.”
- Lead Principal Investigator (PI): Malin Pinsky (Rutgers University)
- Co-PI: Richard Seagraves (Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council)
- Rutgers University and NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory: “A high-resolution physical-biological study of the Northeast U.S. shelf: Past variability and future change,”
- Lead Principal Investigators (PI): Enrique Curchitser (Rutgers University), Michael Alexander (Earth Systems Research Laboratory)
- Co-PI: Charles Stock (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)<
- Rutgers University, NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, University of Delaware – MARACOOS, and University of Rhode Island: “Indicators of habitat change affecting three key commercial species of the U.S. Northeast Shelf: A design to facilitate proactive management in the face of climate change,”
- Lead Principal Investigators (PI): Brad Seibel (University of Rhode Island), Vincent Saba (NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center), Peter Moore (University of Delaware – MARACOOS), Grace Saba (Rutgers University)
- Northeastern University: “Predicting social impacts of climate change in fisheries,”
- Lead Principal Investigator (PI): Steven Scyphers (Northeastern University)
- CO-PIs: Jonathan Grabowski(Northeastern University), Steven Gray (Michigan State University), Loren McClenachan (Colby College), J. Lad Akins (Reef Environmental Education Foundation), Pamela Schofield (United States Geological Survey)<
- NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC): “Ecosystem Tipping Points in The North Pacific: Identifying Thresholds in Response to Climate Change and Potential Management Strategies,”
- Lead Principal Investigators (PI): Franciso Werner (NOAA SWFSC) and Robert Webb (NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory)
To view the NMFS announcement, visit: www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/ecosystems/climate/northeast-shelf-climate-impact
COCA is a program in the Climate and Societal Interactions Division of the Climate Program Office, within NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. To learn more about COCA and it’s funding opportunities, visit: cpo.noaa.gov/ClimatePrograms/ClimateandSocietalInteractions/COCAProgram
NOAA’s Climate Program Office helps improve understanding of climate variability and change in order to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond. NOAA provides science, data, and information that Americans want and need to understand how climate conditions are changing. Without NOAA’s long-term climate observing, monitoring, research, and modeling capabilities we couldn’t quantify where and how climate conditions have changed, nor could we predict where and how they’re likely to change.