Written by:
Hans Kruit
Fish are likely to get smaller on average by 2050 because global warming will cut the amount of oxygen in the oceans in a shift that may also mean dwindling catches, according to a study published last year.
Average maximum body weights for 600 types of marine fish, such as cod, plaice, halibut and flounder, would contract by 14-24 percent by 2050 from 2000 under a scenario of a quick rise in greenhouse gas emissions, it said.
`The reductions in body size will affect whole ecosystems,` lead author William Cheung of the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Reuters of the findings in the journal Nature Climate Change.
His team of scientists said a trend towards smaller sizes was `expected to have large implications` for ocean food webs and for human `fisheries and global protein supply.`
`The consequences of failing to curtail greenhouse gas emissions on marine ecosystems are likely to be larger than previously indicated,` the U.S. and Canada-based scientists wrote.
They said global warming will make life harder for fish in the oceans largely because warmer water can hold less dissolved oxygen, vital for respiration and growth.
source: Daily Mail
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