Giving Compass' Take:

• Sierra Garcia discusses the damaging effects of warming oceans displacing fish and harming tropical economies.

• What are the global impacts of displacement on the fish market? How is this another example of the actions of more fortuitous nations having dastardly repercussions for those that are less fortunate? What can you do to reduce such injustices?

• The price to correct our mistakes has risen drastically. Read more here.

If a fish finds itself in hot water, what can it do? As ocean temperatures rise, scientists predict many species of fish will relocate to cooler waters by moving away from the tropics and swimming polewards. That’s a situation that will likely lead international fishers into troubled waters, according to a new study.

For mid-latitude countries like the U.S., shifting fish populations would mean losing some familiar species and gaining others as new species swim northwards toward cooler waters. Tropical countries, on the other hand, aren’t expected to get any influx of new fish to replace the ones that leave. Even with the most diligent fishery management, that would leave them with a sizeable gap in income and nutrition — unless they were to venture beyond their present day fishing boundaries.

These climate-driven population shifts are expected to empty tropical seas of many species crucial to commercial fisheries. Northwest Africa, for example, may suffer losses of up to 25 percent of their fish species by 2050, with nearly 60 percent hightailing it for cooler waters by 2100. This could drive seafood from one country’s waters to another and lead to international conflicts.

The whole situation reeks of injustice like spoiled tuna, especially since the communities that will suffer most from migrating fish stocks contribute comparatively little to climate change. Fish are also the main protein source for about a billion people, especially in many of the coastal regions most vulnerable to losing species. “Give a person a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach a person to fish and they’ll eat for life” only works if there are fish to be found.

Read the full article about how warming oceans are displacing fish and harming economies by Sierra Garcia at Grist.