fisheries and aquaculture

Climate change has been recognized as the foremost environmental problem of the twenty-first century and has been a subject of considerable debate and controversy. It is predicted to lead to adverse, irreversible impacts on the earth and the ecosystem as a whole. Although it is difficult to connect specific weather events to climate change, increases in global temperature has been predicted to cause broader changes, including glacial retreat, arctic shrinkage and worldwide sea level rise. Climate change has been implicated in mass mortalities of several aquatic species including plants, fish, corals and mammals. The present chapter has been divided in to two parts; the first part discusses the causes and general concerns of global climate change and the second part deals, specifically, on the impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture, possible mitigation options and development of suitable monitoring tools. 1. Global Climate change: Causes and concerns Climate change is the variation in the earth’s global climate or in regional climates over time and it involves changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over durations ranging from decades to millions of years. The United Nations Framework Convention o