Climate change has been important to our understanding of fisheries since the first hook went in the water. More recently, it has become associated with change contributed by our society. Since we in “fisheries” have long studied environmental changes and their impacts on our flock, we tend to recognize that fisheries rise and fall with changes in the local and global environment, with many synchronous population changes in stocks around the world. Our understanding of these fast and vast changes gives us a distinct advantage in dealing with this complex issue. Change happens but not all change is equal. A change of 1 degree F (0.5 C) over 150 years is like noise in a system with El Niños, Pacific Decadal Oscillations, and North Atlantic Oscillations. The fisheries community has been much more reasoned in its response to climate change than many other sectors…READ MORE