Fish growing faster as oceans warm

climate change

Researchers believe that some species of Australian fish are growing bigger, much faster, because ocean temperatures are warming up.
A CSIRO study has found that increasing ocean temperatures are speeding up the growth rate of wild fish stocks by up to 30 per cent.
But while fish in shallow waters are growing rapidly, species in the cooler deeper ocean are growing at a much slower rate.
Lead author Dr Ron Thresher says this will have huge implications for the long-term sustainability of the marine ecosystem.
"Some species are probably going to be able to track an environmental temperature by moving up and down the coast or moving up and down in the water column so they stay in their optimal temperature range," he said.
"But the fish we looked at, it doesn't look they're doing that and they're just trying to cope with the temperatures as they're changing," he said.
"Sooner or later eventually they'll reach a point where they can't cope and at that stage they're going to be in real trouble."
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