WASHINGTON — The world’s oceans will likely lose about one-sixth of their fish and other marine life by the end of the century if climate change continues on its current path, a new study says.
Every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit that the world’s oceans warm, the total mass of sea animals is projected to drop by 5 percent, according to a comprehensive computer-based study by an international team of marine biologists. And that does not include effects of fishing.
If the world’s greenhouse gas emissions stay at the present rate, that means a 17 percent loss of biomass — the total weight of all the marine animal life — by the year 2100, according to Tuesday’s study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But if the world reduces carbon pollution, losses can be limited to only about 5 percent, the study said.
“We will see a large decrease in the biomass of the oceans,” if the world doesn’t slow climate change, said study co-author William Cheung, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia.