New Research Highlights the Growing Threat of Ocean Deoxygenation to Pacific Fisheries

It’s no secret that expanding zones of oxygen depletion are foreclosing vast areas of habitat that support many fish and other species we love.

Here are two new studies that shed light on this problem.

1. The Puget Sound institute and the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences teamed up to produce this report on how loss of oxygen is affecting fish in the Puget Sound. Authors focused attention Chinook salmon and Dungenes crab, two iconic species in the region. The article below from the magazine Currents, includes a link to the original report.
   
   Case studies provide new details on impacts of low oxygen on Puget Sound species
   

2. At University of British Columbia, rmarine research scientist Hongsik Kim and colleagues have published a paper forecasting how oxygen loss in deep water may erode the Pacfic halibut fishery, one of the treasures of the North American Pacific coast and a touchstone species for many coastal communities. The findings are sobering and troubling.
   
   Ecological and economic impacts of ocean deoxygenation on Pacific halibut fisheries: A multidisciplinary assessment of projected losses