Climate change implications for fisheries and aquaculture – Overview of current scientific knowledge

variability, in particular relating to ENSO events. Off California, anchovy spawning expands northwards during El Niño events (Checkley et al., 2009). Likewise, the northern limit of California sardines in Canadian waters is broadly related to sea surface temperature, expanding north during the months of June through August and returning south when sea temperatures begin to cool (McFarlane et al., 2005). Rodriquez-Sánchez et al. (2002) have described how Pacific sardine (Sardinops caeruleus) in the California Current System changed its core habitat locations from the central to the southern and then back to the central parts of its full distributional range over the period 1931 to 1997 as the prevailing climate regimes shifted. Cross-shelf habitat is also affected by productivity conditions. California sardine shows significant interannual variation in the geographic extent of spawning, extending further offshore during La Niña and being compressed shoreward during El Niño (e.g. Lynn, 2003). FIGURE 15 Examples of North Sea fish distributions that have shifted north with climatic warming. Relationships between mean latitude and 5-year running mean winter bottom temperature for (A) cod, (B) anglerfish, and (C) snake blenny are shown