GOOD COD, YOUR FISH SUPPER’S HADDOCK
Seafood hit by warming
BRITAIN’S favourite food may have had its chips because all the fish are dying out, scientists warn.
Fish and chips could be off the menu for good if global warming continues to affect the oceans. Cod and haddock are more likely to face extinction because oxygen in the seas is drastically reducing.
The claims are based on a study which analysed how crustaceans cope with less gas in water.
Over time they got smaller, supporting the idea larger fish are particularly vulnerable to effects of climate change. Co-author Professor John Spicer, a marine zoologist at Plymouth University, has spent more than 30 years examining the effect of climate change. He said: “Over the last 50 years the oxygen in our oceans has decreased by around 2 to 5% and this is already having an effect on species’ ability to function. Unless they adapt, many larger marine invertebrates will either shrink in size or face extinction, which would have a profoundly negative impact on the ecosystems of which they are a part.
“This is obviously a major cause for concern.”
Previous studies have suggested cod and haddock will shrink by up to a quarter by 2050.
Prof Spicer said it was one of the most important changes occurring in an ocean becoming increasingly modified by human activities – which is making the water warmer.
The animals of polar waters exist because more oxygen dissolves there than in the warmer seas of temperate and tropical regions.
As the ocean warms and oxygen decreases, it has been claimed this will have a greater impact on large creatures.
Prof Spicer added: “Many large marine species will almost certainly be the first casualties of our warming, oxygen-poor ocean.”