Fish Forced to Move to Colder Waters, Study Says

May 17, 2013 01:50 PM EDT | Michael Briggs

Rising sea temperatures are forcing fish and other marine life to migrate to cooler, deeper waters, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia studied the movements of 968 species of marine life for the three-decade long study. While previous studies looked to follow the migration patterns of fish and invertebrates within a specific region, this was the first that looked at the far-reaching effects climate change had on species across the entire planet.

"One way for marine animals to respond to ocean warming is by moving to cooler regions," says the study's lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at UBC's Fisheries Centre.

"As a result, places like New England on the northeast coast of the U.S. saw new species typically found in warmer waters, closer to the tropics," Cheung added. "Meanwhile in the tropics, climate change meant fewer marine species and reduced catches, with serious implications for food security."

Others agreed that the migration of these species could be disruptive to local ecosystems.

"There'll be changes in the kinds of fish that are available to people who would like to follow that kind of (eating local) strategy," said Michael Fogarty, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center not involved with the study, to NBC News.

As tropical fish move North, they leave an abandoned spot in the environment. This worries fishermen in these parts of the world that rely on the fish for their livelihood.

"We've been talking about climate change as if it's something that's going to happen in the distant future - our study shows that it has been affecting our fisheries and oceans for decades," says Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with UBC's Sea Around Us Project and the study's co-author.

"These global changes have implications for everyone in every part of the planet."

The study's findings were published in the journal Nature.

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