‘The writing is on the wall’: B.C. fisherman concerned about what climate change is doing to the oceans

 

A fisherman with the Musqueam Nation in British Columbia says that the fishing industry these days is up and down and he points the finger directly at climate change.

“Stuff is definitely not getting better,” said Mike Sparrow. “It’s getting worse.”

A new report from Ocean Wise backs up what Sparrow is seeing out on the water.

In its latest findings, the oceans are warming up six times the rate previously predicted creating chaos below the water and in essence, helping to speed up climate change.

“As the oceans warm and you see displacement of some of the fisheries stocks we have concerns for the top predators like the southern resident killer whales for example who depend on one particular species of salmon the chinook as their primary source of food,” said Karen Wristen with Living Oceans Canada.

“And if we get displacement of the bait fish that the Chinook eat and they don’t thrive then the whales don’t thrive.”

The intergovernmental panel on climate change also released a report in October about the dire situation the planet finds itself in.

“Its very clear in the scenarios and pathways that we have assessed in this report that coal use goes down very very substantially by the middle of the 21st century,” said Jim Skea.

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