Crafting Guidance for Adapting to Shifting Fish Populations

Climate change is altering the distribution of marine species, causing many to shift away from traditional fishing grounds. When a population shifts, managers must decide who should be allowed to catch the fish in their new location. This can pose challenges, such as difficult trade-offs between fairness and economic efficiency. For example, it might be considered fair to preserve the access rights of the fishermen who currently target the population, but it might be more economically efficient to reallocate access to fishermen who operate nearer to the new location.

This project seeks to systematically review how various regions and countries have adapted to shifting fish populations. The research team will then describe a range of options for adaptation and provide guidance on the benefits and challenges of each. They will refine this guidance based on input from an advisory body and from focus groups of fishermen and managers from the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

The project is led by Dr. Andrew Pershing, along with co-investigators Lisa Kerr and Jonathan Labaree, of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).