The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 15 No. 37 - July 15, 2015

reel time

Part 2: climate change and fishing

Reel time

RUSTY CHINNIS | SUN

Sea level on average has risen six inches
in the past century.

 

 

When you consider climate change and the possible consequences to our fishery (not to mention our Island lifestyle) the issue takes on a much more personal nature. This portends a very different outlook for our children and future generations of anglers.

In 2008, the Florida Legislature, under then Gov. Charlie Christ, unanimously passed comprehensive energy and economic development legislation and created the Florida Energy and Climate Commission to serve as the primary organization for state energy and climate change programs and policies.

Under the policies of now Gov. Rick Scott, the urgency has evaporated to the point that it has been reported that the governor decreed that employees from the Department of Health, Department of Transportation and South Florida Water Management District refrain from using the terms climate change and global warming. Scott denies the allegations. During his tenure, Scott has largely dodged questions about climate change using the refrain, “I’m not a scientist.”

It has already been documented that sea level on average has risen six inches in the past century. That may not sound like a lot, but that is about 10 times faster than the rate of sea-level rise over the last 2000 years. Along Florida’s gradually-sloped shores, a 15-inch rise would translate into an inland advance of water by as much as 250 feet.

Unfortunately, sea level rise is only part of the problem that warming may pose. Warming waters may mean more marine diseases, red tides, coral bleaching and other unforeseen consequences.

Gibson offered three suggestions we might consider beyond controlling carbon emissions including, “keeping fish populations robust at all levels of the food web, restoring habitats and water quality and ending policies that encourage armoring and dredge-and-fill shore protection projects that exacerbate erosion and damage coastal ecosystems”.

In the long run, it’s a combination of many stressors including increased development, pollution, unsustainable fishing practices and global warming that pose threats to Florida’s fisheries. A lot can be accomplished right here. Florida ranks fifth in the nation in terms of its carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and its consumption is rising twice as fast as the nation a whole.

With all the evidence to the contrary, there are still those that rail against human impacts related to global warming and have gone so far as to label it pseudo-science. Unfortunately, those sceptics are in many cases the ones that are responsible for legislation that could help reverse these alarming trends.

Despite the dire predictions, it’s not too late to work on meaningful changes that could help soften the worst impacts. On a personal level we can keep our thermostats at 76 to 78 degrees, clean or replace air conditioning filters once a month, change light bulbs to more efficient LEDs, recycle, plant shade trees and reduce gas consumption by keeping tires inflated and keeping our engines in tune.

Sending personal handwritten letters to legislator responsible for enacting legislation to help curb carbon emissions can make a big impact. In your community, you can encourage your workplace to improve the energy efficiency of its buildings and office machinery and support transportation alternatives such as carpooling and teleworking.

Urge your local electric utilities to offer green electricity programs, which enable customers to purchase electricity produced from clean, renewable energy sources like the sun and wind, and encourage your mayor to sign onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Whatever you believe, in light of the science it only seems prudent to do everything possible to address the causes of climate change. That means at home, nationally and internationally.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, a leading player in marine conservation, has established five new pillars that they and others are working to incorporate into the Magnuson-Stevens Act – the primary law governing management of ocean fish. They include protecting important fish habitats, minimizing wasteful bycatch, improving management of forage fish, making sure that new fisheries are sustainable from the start and using fishery ecosystem plans as a blueprint for addressing the 21st-century challenges facing oceans.

Doing nothing isn’t an option. The worst case scenario, if predictions prove to be less ominous, is that we have a healthier and more resilient environment. To read more you can read reports by the Wildlife Federations at http://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/Global-Warming/An_Unfavorable_Tide_Report.ashx and the PEW Charitable Trust at http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/federal-ocean-policy.


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