Original story by Brian Williams, the Courier Mail
RECREATIONAL and commercial anglers will not know where to drop anchor to get their catch with new predictions climate change will impact on fish stocks.
Scientists have found that warming oceans are impacting on the breeding patterns and habitat of marine life, effectively rearranging the marine landscape as species shift towards cooler regions.
Dr Elvira Poloczanska: assessing the vulnerability of marine animals and habitats to climate change. Photo: CSIRO
These include species such as coral trout, snapper and yellowtail kingfish.
Some recreational and commercial species are likely to decline, while others not previously in certain areas, could provide new fishing opportunities.
Researchers led by the CSIRO and University of Queensland marine ecologists Elvira Poloczanska and Anthony Richardson, have found that warming oceans are impacting on the breeding patterns and habitat of marine life.
They have recorded more than 1700 changes, including 222 in Australia, in a study published in the Nature Climate Change journal.
In 2010 Australian National Fish Collection curator Peter Last recorded Queensland groper, tiger sharks and even fish like coral trout as far south as Tasmania.
Dr Last found that yellowtail kingfish and snapper also had headed south, while north Queensland barramundi and threadfin salmon were being caught in Moreton Bay off Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.
Other fish on the move included temperate surf species such as silver drummer, rock blackfish and rock flathead and warm-water tuna and billfishes.
Dr Poloczanska said as water warmed, these species might be able to stay in southern parts over winter.
Marine species were shifting their geographic distribution towards cooler regions and doing so much faster than land-based counterparts.
Dr Anthony J Richardson: predicting impacts of climate change. Photo CSIRO
Despite the ocean having absorbed 80 per cent of the heat added to the global climate system, the ocean's thermal capacity had led to surface waters warming three times more slowly than air temperatures on land.
"The leading edge or front line of a marine species distribution is moving towards the poles at the average rate of 72km per decade, which is considerably faster than terrestrial species moving pole-ward at an average of 6km per decade," Dr Poloczanska said.
Winter and spring temperatures were warming fastest.
In addition, anthropogenic carbon dioxide uptake by the oceans was altering seawater carbonate chemistry, which could impact on some marine organisms.
Associate Professor Richardson said although the study reported global impacts, there was strong evidence of change in the Australian marine environment.
Dr Poloczanska said subtropical species of fish, molluscs and plankton were shifting south through the Tasman Sea.
Dr Last found that a downside was that Tasmanian coastal species had nowhere to migrate to and were at risk of being wiped out.
The team included 19 researchers from Australia, USA, Canada, UK, Europe and South Africa.
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