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The Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean) is important to managing climate change with respect to the worldwide ocean because the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) allows for mixing between the three great oceans. The ACC also serves to buffer Antarctica from the variable climate of higher latitudes (Gille 2002). Furthermore, Antarctic fish have a low tolerance for increases in temperature. This intolerance is due to the fact that in low temperature water, oxygen is more soluble in colder water than in warmer water, so Antarctica fish have a lower capacity for transporting oxygen in their blood, such as having fewer red blood cells. that would not be sufficient at higher temperatures (Mark 2002). Since the 1950's though the 1990's the water in the Southern Ocean has increased 0.17ºC±.06ºC. This a greater change than the overall ocean (Gille 2002).
Currently fishing in the Southern Ocean is regulated by the Commission for teh Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
North Atlantic
There is evidence of lower salinity in the North Atlantic coming from melting of polar ice caps and diluting the ocean with more fresh water. An increased amount of fresh water could come from glaciers or sea ice melting, an increased amount of precipitation or from rivers. The freshening of the oceans could have a damaging effect on the Ocean Conveyor. There are different scenarios for the slowing down of the ocean conveyor between the next two decade or in a hundred years (Gagosian, 2007). There is paleoclimatic evidence for rapid climatic changes as a result of the shut down of the ocean conveyor. If this were to happen, the Gulf Stream could possibly be deflected downwards, which would prevent the transfer of warm water from the tropics to the high Northern latitudes. In this scenario the high latitude would go through a very rapid cooling periods that could have devastating effects on the ecosystem (Gagosian, 2007). For this reason we assert that this region should be carefully monitored in order to recognize this trend early. There should also be a significant effort put into maintaining the robustness of the ecosystem in this area. To do this, restrictions placed on the fishery in this region should be higher than they would otherwise be set. If research proves this scenario is not the case, or that it will happen on longer time scales, such restrictions would be able to be scaled back.
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