The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 15 No. 36 - July 8, 2015

reel time

Part I: Climate change and fishing

Reel time

RUSTY CHINNIS | SUN

The thought of 15 inches of water on a local flat on a negative
low tide is sobering.

 

 

You would have to be an ostrich to not have at least a cursory understanding of climate change. The subject is everywhere on the Internet and the air waves, but I seldom hear the subject raised by anglers on the docks or on the water. That’s surprising, considering the implications for Florida, a state that’s dead center in the bull’s eye of an uncertain future.

Burning fossil fuels – mostly oil, natural gas and coal – is the driving force behind global warming. While some still question the science, a vast majority of scientists have displayed a direct relationship between carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases being released due to human activities and the subsequent increase in average surface temperatures around the world. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased faster than any other time in the past 650,000 years, and possibly as long as 20 million years.

The implications to our fishing were driven home to me recently in information I received from a good friend and journalist, Terry Gibson, who has been working to get the word out to the public. Gibson is owner of North Swell Media, LLC, an avid angler and contributor to many fishing magazines. I reconnected with him recently when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission held its meeting in Sarasota.

Gibson was working with the PEW Charitable Trust on the importance of forage fish. When I inquired about global warming and the possible impacts on local fishing, he made me aware of one of the publications (see link at end of article) he had worked on entitled “An Unfavorable Tide: Global Warming, Coastal Habitats and Sportfishing in Florida.” The work was produced by the National Wildlife Federation and the Florida Wildlife Federation in 2006.

The Federations commissioned an independent researcher who studied areas along the Florida coast from Pensacola Bay to the Indian River Lagoon. The areas from Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor (which include Anna Maria Sound and Sarasota Bay) were studied to see how a mid-range scenario (a 15-inch rise in average sea level rise) during this century would affect coastal habitats. The findings predict that up to 50 percent or 22,956 acres of saltmarsh and 84 percent of tidal flats would be lost. This is chilling when you consider that this would include the vast flats of Anna Maria Sound as well as the Bulkhead and most of Sarasota Bay. This represents a very large portion of the areas local fisherman target.

There are 10 important gamefish species that are at risk including bonefish, flounder, gag grouper, gray snapper, permit, pompano, redfish, snook, spotted seatrout and tarpon. Up until the present day, the greatest threat to both upland and coastal habitats in the Tampa Bay has been the rapid expansion of agricultural and urban development. This expansion and development resulted in a 66 percent loss in undeveloped upland, a 35 percent loss in seagrass, and a 7 percent loss in mangrove and marsh area. Recently there have been significant gains in seagrasses in the Tampa Bay region, including Sarasota Bay. Unfortunately sea level rise could reverse these favorable trends.


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