NOAA’s new Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative

Climate change has impacts on fisheries. Credit: Adobe Stock

From warming waters and rising seas to melting sea ice and changing ocean pH, climate change is having major impacts on the nation’s marine and Great Lakes resources. In order to effectively prepare for and combat the effects of climate change, policymakers need robust historical simulations, as well as forecasts and projections, about how ocean and Great Lakes fisheries and ecosystems have changed and could change in the future.

That’s where NOAA’s Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI) comes in. CEFI is an initiative that aims to provide decision makers with the information they need to effectively mitigate and adapt to the effects climate change is having – and is projected to have – on key marine and Great Lakes resources.

As part of CEFI, GFDL is developing high-resolution regional models that can simulate ocean and ecosystem changes in the coastal regions that are home to some of the country’s most economically important fisheries and protected species. The data these models produce goes directly towards informing the public about how fisheries and protected species could be affected by climate change.