Page 12. MAINE COASTAL NEWS August 2009
Commercial Fishing News
MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS
amount of climate change,” the report states, and severe, and coastal land will increasingly far-reaching consequences.”
Continued from Page 11.
“and would be more effective than reduc- be lost to the rising seas. The report draws from a large body of
“This report stresses that climate tions of the same size initiated later.” By breaking out results in terms of region scientific information, including the set of 21
change has immediate and local impacts – it The study finds that Americans are al- and economic sector the report provides a Synthesis and Assessment reports from the
literally affects people in their backyards,” ready being affected by climate change valuable tool not just for policymakers but for U.S. Global Change Research Program. The
said Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of through extreme weather, drought and wild- all Americans who will be affected by these government agencies affiliated with the pro-
commerce for oceans and atmosphere and fire trends and details how the nation’s trans- trends. Its information can help: gram include the Departments of Agriculture,
administrator of the National Oceanic and portation, agriculture, health, water and en- Farmers making crop and livestock deci- Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and
Atmospheric Administration. “In keeping ergy sectors will be affected in the future. The sions, as growing seasons lengthen, insect Human Services, Interior, State, and Trans-
with our goals, the information in it is acces- study also finds that the current trend in the management becomes more difficult and portation; the Environmental Protection
sible and useful to everyone from city plan- emission of greenhouse gas pollution is sig- droughts become more severe; Local offi- Agency; NASA; National Science Founda-
ners and national legislators to citizens who nificantly above the worst-case scenario that cials thinking about zoning decisions, espe- tion; Smithsonian Institution; and the United
want to better understand what climate this and other reports have considered. cially along coastal areas; Public health offi- States Agency for International Develop-
change means to them. This is an issue that Among the main findings are: Heat cials developing ways to lessen the impacts ment.
clearly affects everyone.” waves will become more frequent and in- of heat waves throughout the country; Wa-
A product of the interagency U.S. Global tense, increasing threats to human health and ter resource officials considering develop- Federal Agencies Protect More Gulf of
Change Research Program, the definitive quality of life. Extreme heat will also affect ment plans; and, Business owners as they Maine Atlantic Salmon to Recover
190-page report, produced under NOAA’s transportation and energy systems, and crop consider business and investment deci- Imperiled Stocks
leadership, is written in plain language to and livestock production. sions. NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the U.S.
better inform members of the public and Increased heavy downpours will lead to Responses to climate change fall into Fish and Wildlife Service extended Endan-
policymakers. Commissioned in 2007 and more flooding, waterborne diseases, nega- two categories. The first involves “mitiga- gered Species Act protection to more Atlan-
completed this spring, the science-based re- tive effects on agriculture, and disruptions to tion” measures to limit climate change by tic salmon by adding fish in the Penobscot,
port is a consensus product spanning two energy, water, and transportation systems. reducing emissions of heat-trapping pollu- Kennebec, and Androscoggin rivers and
presidential administrations and transcends Reduced summer runoff and increasing tion or increasing their removal from the at- their tributaries to the endangered Gulf of
political leanings or biases. It underwent in- water demands will create greater competi- mosphere. The second involves “adapta- Maine population first listed in 2000.
tensive review by scientists inside and out- tion for water supplies in some regions, espe- tion” measures to improve our ability to cope The decision is part of the ongoing effort
side of government and includes information cially in the West. with or avoid harmful impacts, and take ad- to recover the imperiled fish, which once
more recent than that incorporated into the Rising water temperatures and ocean vantage of beneficial ones. “Both of these are returned by the hundreds of thousands to
last major report on global climate change acidification threaten coral reefs and the rich necessary elements of an effective response most major rivers along the Northeastern U.S.
released by the Intergovernmental Panel on ecosystems they support. These and other strategy,” said Jerry Melillo of the Marine and now returns in small numbers only to
Climate Change. climate-related impacts on coastal and marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, a rivers in Maine.
The report is not intended to direct ecosystems will have major implications for report co-chair. “Legend has it you could once walk
policy makers to take any one approach over tourism and fisheries. “By comparing impacts that are pro- across these rivers on the backs of salmon,”
another to mitigate climate change or adapt to Insect infestations and wildfires are al- jected to result from higher versus lower said FWS Acting Director Rowan Gould.
it. But it emphasizes that the choices we make ready increasing and are projected to in- emissions of heat-trapping gasses, our re- “Unfortunately, in most years we are able to
now will determine the severity of climate crease further in a warming climate. port underscores the importance and real count barely 1,000 fish returning to the
change impacts in the future. “Implementing Local sea-level rise of over three feet on economic value of reducing those emis- Penobscot and fewer than a hundred in the
sizable and sustained reductions in carbon top of storm surges will increasingly threaten sions,” said Tom Karl, director of NOAA’s other two rivers. If we are ever going to
dioxide emissions as soon as possible would homes and other coastal infrastructure. National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, recover this iconic species so that future
significantly reduce the pace and the overall Coastal flooding will become more frequent N.C. and one of the co-chairs of the report. “It
Continued on Page 20.
shows that the choices made now will have
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