NOAA’s 14th Arctic Report Card recounts the numerous ways that climate change continues to disrupt the polar region, including massive melt of the Greenland ice sheet and major shifts in the distribution of commercially valuable marine species.
Ice cover on the Great Lakes has been decreasing since the 1970s, affecting everything from fishing to shipping.
Groundfish stocks in the Eastern Bering Sea are healthy at present, but a recent string of very warm summers, preceded by winters with sparse sea ice, led NOAA biologists to recommend lower catch limits for pollock—the nation's largest commercial fishery.
Not only are there now bigger fish to fry in the Arctic's Barents Sea, but scientists predict the natural marine ecosystem will undergo a transformation.
As climate changes in the Great Lakes region, the popular yellow perch–which some consider the ultimate pan-fried fish–may become much less common, potentially forcing consumers to adopt new traditions.