Climate change does not affect the seafood quality of a commonly targeted fish

Abstract

Climate change can affect marine and estuarine fish via alterations to their distributions, abundances, sizes, physiology and ecological interactions, threatening the provision of ecosystem goods and services. While we have an emerging understanding of such ecological impacts to fish, we know little about the potential influence of climate change on the provision of nutritional seafood to sustain human populations. In particular, the quantity, quality and/or taste of seafood may be altered by future environmental changes with implications for the economic viability of fisheries. In an orthogonal mesocosm experiment, we tested the influence of near‐future ocean warming and acidification on the growth, health and seafood quality of a recreationally and commercially important fish, yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis). The growth of yellowfin bream significantly increased under near‐future temperature conditions (but not acidification), with little change in health (blood glucose and haematocrit) or tissue biochemistry and nutritional properties (fatty acids, lipids, macro‐ and micronutrients, moisture, ash and total N). Yellowfin bream appear to be highly resilient to predicted near‐future ocean climate change, which might be facilitated by their wide spatio‐temporal distribution across habitats and broad diet. Moreover, an increase in growth, but little change in tissue quality, suggests that near‐future ocean conditions will benefit fisheries and fishers that target yellowfin bream. The data reiterate the inherent resilience of yellowfin bream as an evolutionary consequence of their euryhaline status in often environmentally challenging habitats and imply their sustainable and viable fisheries into the future. We contend that widely distributed species that span large geographic areas and habitats can be “climate winners” by being resilient to the negative direct impacts of near‐future oceanic and estuarine climate change.

Oceanographic habitat suitability is positively correlated with the body condition of a coastal‐pelagic fish

“…Therefore, oceanographic habitat suitability predictions for kingfish would be of high value to fishers who aim to target the highest quality fish possible for the purpose of consumption, and who are willing to modify their behaviour to achieve this goal. Comparisons between phase angle measurements used to assess fish condition herein and various metrics for quantifying seafood quality (Coleman et al, ) could be undertaken to determine whether the range of variation in phase angle measurements corresponds to meaningful changes in kingfish seafood quality. This is a necessary step before links are drawn between oceanographic habitat suitability and the spatial distribution of kingfish seafood quality off eastern Australia and subsequent implications (e.g.…”

“…It is more likely that relationships between seafood quality and environmental habitat suitability would be found for coastal‐pelagic species that associate with dynamic oceanographic features, such as kingfish, than for estuarine species that have evolved broad physiological tolerances to environmental conditions. For example, Coleman et al () found that the seafood quality of a common sparid, yellowfin bream ( Acanthopagrus australis ), was not affected by experimental treatments simulating future climate change scenarios. Coleman et al () attributed the lack of physiological responses in this species to its evolution in estuarine habitats that are characterized by high abiotic variability.…”

“…For example, Coleman et al (2019) found that the seafood quality of a common sparid, yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis), was not affected by experimental treatments simulating future climate change scenarios. Coleman et al (2019) attributed the lack of physiological responses in this species to its evolution in estuarine habitats that are characterized by high abiotic variability. In contrast, strong relationships between the distributions and ecologies of coastal-pelagic species and environmental variables have been documented (Briscoe et al, 2017;Brodie et al, 2015;Dell, Wilcox, & Hobday, 2011;Hobday, 2010;Robinson, Hobday, et al, 2015b), indicating that environmental effects on the seafood quality of these species may be detectable.…”

“…For example, concurrent reductions in reproduction, growth and feeding are expected to occur across a declining gradient of habitat suitability (Helaouët & Beaugrand, 2009). While a range of measures have been applied to investigate environmental effects on the physiology of marine fishes, including moisture, ash, protein and lipids (Coleman, Butcherine, & Kelaher, 2019), body condition indices are broadly considered to represent an integrated measure of physiological status (Murphy, Brown, & Springer, 1990). Although fish condition is known to covary with biotic factors, such as prey availability and spawning events (Cubillos & Claramunt, 2009;Hiddink et al, 2016), environmental variation also affects fish either directly, due to physiological stress, or indirectly, through changes in ecosystem productivity (Lloret, Shulman, & Love, 2014).…”

Achieving sustainable and climate‐resilient fisheries requires marine ecosystem forecasts to include fish condition

“…However, relatively few studies have examined the effect of environmental variation on commercially harvested fish condition. For example, the majority of studies investigating linkages between ocean temperatures or acidification and body condition, particularly metrics of nutritional quality, have focused on coastal invertebrates (Anacleto et al., 2014; Champion, Broadhurst, et al., 2020; Tate et al., 2017; Valles‐Regino et al., 2015) with only one study of a commercial fish species published to date (Coleman et al., 2019). Environmental conditions can also affect the organoleptic properties of fish tissues, such as taste, appearance, texture and odour (Watson et al., 1988).…”