Pacific Ocean ‘blobs’ will escalate loss of fish stocks, study says

April 27, 2020

A new study co-authored by 2017 Wall Scholar William Cheung predicts increased death rates for Pacific fish stocks from marine heatwaves like the mysterious “Blob” that disrupted the marine ecosystem from 2013 to 2015. The study found the impact of climate change combined with the effect of marine heatwaves caused a decrease in the size of the fish stocks and changes in their distribution patterns, which would affect regional fisheries.

William Cheung is an Associate Professor and the Director (Science) of the Nippon Foundation-UBC Nereus Program at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. His main research areas address the key challenges in understanding and predicting the responses of marine natural-human systems to global changes.