The climatic environment and fisheries

Abstract

Fisheries with climatic studies is a recent one. There is a clear relationship between climate, fish behaviour and fishing. There is the need for physical Oceanographers to be involved with biologists and co-operate with climatologist in the pursuit of the climate - fish environmental studies. The objective of this study is the examination of the application of climate information to fisheries management and operations. This will help bridge the gap in knowledge between climatic variations and fishing. This paper, in pursuit of the above objective discusses the place of climate in the fisheries system. Emphasis is placed on the role of the sea surface temperature; the wind and sea level pressure; light and its effect in fish production; rainfall, salinity and fish availability, and the climate service for fisheries. The paper concludes that fishing activities could be planned in order to manage the best yield as climate information and prediction, which are natural, and the fishing activities and management which are human, influences the abundance, catchability and mortality of fish.