On April 29, Lisa Kerr (Gulf of Maine Research Institute) and Vince Saba (NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC) will present their project titled “Northeast Climate Integrated Modeling to Meet Ocean Decision Challenges,” funded through the joint CPO-NMFS Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Program. The webinar will also feature Samantha Borisoff, a Climatologist with the Northeast Regional Climate Center, who will provide an update on April climatological conditions.

The Northeast U.S. Shelf Ecosystem is a complex and changing region that supports a wide array of living marine resources and resource-dependent human communities. Because of the rapid pace of change in the region, there is a critical need to develop and apply scientific knowledge and tools that can help fisheries decision-making be responsive to climate change.

The goal of the project is to develop an integrated modeling framework to inform marine resource decision-making under projected climate change in the Northeast United States. This framework will integrate: 1) global climate models, 2) regional oceanographic models, 3) ecosystem and population models, and 4) social-ecological system models. The webinar will demonstrate this integration of regional climate-fish-fisheries and management models to inform fisheries decision challenges for species that have demonstrated shifts in distribution and changes in productivity.

The Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Program (CAFA) is a joint CPO-NMFS Program established to understand climate change impacts on fish stocks and fisheries and inform sustainable resource management. In 2020, CAFA funded projects to develop integrated climate-fisheries modeling frameworks in 4 regions to evaluate fisheries management and adaptation strategies and serve as pilot projects for the NOAA Climate and Fisheries Initiative.

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