Managing for Adaptive Capacity in Climate-Ready Fisheries

Ocean conditions are changing rapidly because of climate change and, as a result, causing unpredictable anomalies in ocean chemistry, oxygen levels, and temperature extremes. Cumulative effects of these impacts pose challenges to long-term fisheries sustainability and profitability. In this paper, a team of researchers review potential options for fishery managers that may increase fishers’ abilities to adapt to changing ocean and fishery conditions as they become more unpredictable. They highlight three main points for consideration when managing for adaptive capacity:

1. Any discussion of adaptive capacity for climate-ready fisheries must be conditional on the management regime—that is, a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely;
2. Adaptive capacity in the sector could be enhanced by relaxing a permit’s definition along any one of several dimensions (e.g., space, time, species, and gear); and
3. Managers could enable additional adaptive capacity by creating conditions that foster developing private or nonprofit entities, such as harvester or producer cooperatives and permit or quota banks.

Read the full paper here.

Reference

Reimer, M.N., Rogers, A., Sanchirico, J.N. (2025) Managing for adaptive capacity in climate-ready fisheries. Marine Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106601