Climate Change and the Future of Freshwater Fisheries

Air temperatures measured at weather stations across North America continue to increase in association with global warming. Climate model projections suggest that temperatures will continue to increase through at least the middle of the 21^st Century. The series of environmental and fish population trends that warming causes will be a defining theme in the careers of young fisheries professionals. Understanding and predicting those trends will be necessary to manage fisheries, and the expectations that publics have of those fisheries. Key to reducing uncertainties will be collection of better data for describing status and trends of aquatic systems, developing useful information from those databases, and using that information in adaptive management strategies. Dealing with the complex social and environmental dynamics that climate change triggers will require unprecedented levels of communication among agencies, across subdisciplinary boundaries, between researchers and managers, and between professionals and a concerned public. Today’s young fisheries professionals will need superb technical, writing, speaking, leadership, and collaborative skills to successfully navigate a rapidly evolving world. Although climate change poses huge challenges, it also presents huge opportunities because decisions made in the next few decades will have disproportionate effects on fisheries resources a century from now.