Transformational adaptation in marine fisheries

Climate change affects food production systems, forcing them to adapt. For marine fisheries, adaptation has been incremental and insufficient, and transformative adaptation stands as the opportunity for a timely transition to a more climate-resilient condition. Based on a limited transformational background that comes from the particularities of marine fisheries and experiences of non climate change-oriented deep transformations in the past, we argue that transformative adaptation in fisheries must be local-to-regional in implementation but global in design. We propose two not mutually exclusive transformational change options: prioritize food security over other benefits derived from fisheries and implement a climate-responsive ecosystem approach for fisheries management. The first implies reconsidering the process of local-to-regional-scale decision-making by means of a scientifically robust, ample scope, and equitable regionalization of the world ocean; and the second is the generation of ecosystem-level reference points, socioeconomic indicators, and improved forecasting capabilities that allow representing plausible ecosystem states at which exploitation levels of individual stocks can be defined. Limits and barriers to successful adoption include scientific uncertainty, political will, perceived level or risk, regulatory processes, and financial costs. Therefore, such transformations would necessitate consensual schemes of international cooperation, efficient information flow into local to-regional normative frameworks, and the setting of mechanisms for stewardship and traceable evidence of compliance.

Automated summary

Climate change necessitates adaptive measures in food production systems, particularly in marine fisheries. Incremental adaptation has proven to be insufficient, thus transformative adaptation offers an opportunity for a timely transition towards climate-resilient conditions. Transformative adaptation in fisheries, taking into account past non climate change-oriented deep transformations and the unique attributes of marine fisheries, should be implemented locally and regionally but designed globally. Two transformational options are proposed: prioritizing food security and adopting a climate-responsive ecosystem approach for fisheries management. Successful adoption hinges on addressing scientific uncertainty, political will, risk perception, regulatory processes, and financial costs through international cooperation, information flow, stewardship mechanisms, and traceable compliance evidence.