Marine heat waves haven't had a lasting effect on fish populations along Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts, says a study showing there is still a chance to act on climate change.
"What it suggested is that the relationship between heat waves and fish stocks can be more complicated." The authors said steep declines in fish populations –"occasionally occurred after marine heat waves, these were the exception, not the rule ... Marine heat waves have not driven biomass change or community turnover in fish communities that support many of the world’s largest and most productive fisheries."
But the study warns that as marine heat waves get longer and more intense, fisheries may eventually be affected because marine life is more vulnerable to warming than is terrestrial life. Marine organisms tend to live close to the temperature limits of what their bodies can sustain, while oceans, compared with land, have fewer"thermal refugia" – areas with cooler temperatures than the surrounding ecosystem.