Languages

Climate change fuels Russian fisheries: true or false?

Polartorsk
Gradual disappearance of polar cod is causing the biggest concern for the ecosystem of the Barents Sea.

KIRKENES: Warmer temperatures at the bottom of the Barents Sea are of big concern to ecologists in the High North. Certain marine species are disappearing from the ecosystem while others are increasing in number. The impact on Russia’s fisheries sector is crucial.

Location

Ecologists record evident changes in the state of the Barents Sea’s ecosystem. “The water temperature at the bottom of the Barents Sea is getting warmer,” says Elena Eriksen from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research to BarentsObserver.

Scientists inform that rising water temperatures lead to higher productivity in the Barents Sea, when it comes to certain species. “We have been observing strong year classes of cod, although haddock and herring populations have decreased in 2014,” Eriksen adds.

Figures from Patchwork Barents illustrate how seawater temperatures have risen in the Barents Sea. Over the past 48 years, the average annual temperature in the upper layers of the sea have risen with over 2 degrees celsius.

A catch record for Murmansk fisheries in 2013
Strong productivity of the Barents Sea has also reflected itself in the economy of Barents Russia. In 2013, commercial fisheries in Murmansk Oblast set a new catch record. Murmanskstat registered the biggest sea catch in the last twenty years, 697,000 tons of. The amount accounted for 17 percent of the total national catch the same year.

The most important species included cod (275,000 tons), followed by whiting (55,000 tons) and haddock (53,600 tons), the Committee of the Fisheries Industry of Murmansk Oblast reports. 

Researchers concerned
Despite the positive connection between a warmer Barents Sea and a rich cod harvest, the long-term prospects are uncertain. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research are worried about the effects of climate change on the ecosystem.

“We have registered a decrease in the population of plankton over the last two years. But the issue causing the biggest concern for the ecosystem is the gradual disappearance of polar cod,” Eriksen points out. 

Although the species has little commercial significance, polar cod plays a crucial role in the stability of the Arctic and subarctic ecosystems, being an important food for fish eaters like cod and marine mammals. 

There is still much uncertainty in climate science, which explains the difficulty in predicting how the changing ecosystem will affect Murmansk Oblast fisheries in the upcoming years. Nevertheless, recent data indicates a negative trend. In 2014, the fisheries sector showed lower results than the previous year. In the first half of 2014, production dropped 33 percent from the equivalent period in 2013, recent data from Murmanskstat shows. 

Being the biggest port city in the Barents Region, Murmansk is highly dependent on a stable productivity of the Barents Sea. According to Murmansk Regional Government, Murmansk Oblast stands for 16 percent of Russia’s fish catch, and 7 percent of the regional GDP comes from the fisheries sector. In 2012, the region took the first place in Russia in the amount of shipped fish production – over 1 billion USD (31 billion RUB).

Climate change may have fuelled the economy in Murmansk Oblast. However, a destabilized ecosystem in the Barents Sea could mean significant challenges for the future of regional marine fisheries sector.