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Rising temperature of climate change is already noticeable in the deep layers of the Japan Sea and the shrinking ice of the Sea of Okhotsk, while rising sea levels have been occurring along Sanriku coasts and the Pacific Ocean side for the past 100 years. Southern plankton never been seen as north as Japan now threatens oysters, shellfish and sardine, all of which are important to Japan's fishing industry. (Ichikawa, 104-105) The great change afflicted by even a few degrees rise in temperature is evident in the case of bluefin tuna. Able to spawn up to six degrees below its optimal temperature of 26 degrees Celsius, bluefin tuna, however, cannot spawn three degrees above that number. Based on the study and projection of Shingo Kimura, professor of marine environmental science at the University of Tokyo, tuna population, already hurt by overfishing, will be so exacerbated that populations will shrink to 37% its current levels by 2099. As Japan is the biggest supplies of bluefin tuna and given the internationality of the fishing industry, a decline in numbers hurt will also hurt China, South Korean, China, and the US. (Bluefin, 1) In a culture that is based on fishing, Japan faces not just the threat of environmental change but also of cultural change.
The increased carbon dioxide from combustion has in turn increased acidity of the ocean by 30%, drastically altering the chemistry of the ocean. In the North Pacific waters, which is the most in general more acidic than other waters because it is colder, older, and absorbs more carbon, coral reef are being tested at saturation points, when growth cannot overcome disintegration due to acidity. (Brenton, 1) In the Indo-Pacific waters, which hold 75% the world's coral reefs, researchers of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found in surveys found study decline, threatening tourism, that coastal regions that once found safety behind the buffering reefs, and fisheries. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1)
As Royce Pollard of Vancouver, Washington said, "The fish gave us our first indication." (Joling, 1) The effect of climate change on fisheries in many cases is a warning sign of more adverse effects to follow. In the case of Alaska salmon run failures of 1997-1998, Chinook salmon catch were only 43,500, half than that of the catch the year before. Though for the next year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecasted a catch of 24.8 million, only 12.1 million were caught. Also in 1997-1998, Alaska experienced a 2.0 degrees Celsius increase in surface temperature and a 1.5-2.0 degrees Celsius increase in deep ocean temperature. (Kruse , 61) Pacific white-dolphins, albacore, walleye Pollock, all southern species, were sighted in northern Gulf of Alaska. A sub-polar phytoplankton known as Coccolithophore blooms appeared suddenly, indicating high light intensity and low nutrients in the water. All these changes, which were already predicted in 1995 by ocean scientists who studied global warming on the Bering Sea, confirmed the need to understand more climate change in Alaska. (Kruse, 60)
As a result, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Marine Conservation Alliance have closed US waters in the Arctic Ocean to fishing until enough research is present to understand climate change and until a management regime is put in place for climate change. (Marine Conservation Alliance, 1)
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Fisheries and aquaculture. (n.d.). In US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change Climate Change and its Consequences on the Gulf Coast Region of the US: Gulf Coast Regional Workshop Report (Chap. 5). Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/nacc/gulfcoastworkshop.htm+Gagosian, R. B. (2003), Abrupt Climate Change: Should We Be Worried? Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12455&tid=282&cid=9986.+
Gagosian, Robert B. (January 27, 2003). Abrupt Climate Change: Should We Be Worried? Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12455&tid=282&cid=9986+
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