Canada’s Oceans Now: Pacific Ecosystems, 2021 - Climate change affects species living at the seafloor

Infographic showing how climate change affects groundfish and shrimp who live at the seafloor. On the left there is a simplified map showing icons of a group of groundfish in warmer shallow water with an arrow pointing upwards towards another group of groundfish in colder deeper water. This indicates that groundfish move into deeper cooler waters. On the right is a simplified line graph, the x axis at the bottom shows increasing water temperature, the y axis vertically shows population of shrimp. Icons of shrimp in a large group are shown at the top left of the graph (cold water, high population) with arrows moving to the bottom right of the graph with less icons of shrimp (warmer water, less population). This is indicating that shrimp numbers are decreasing with increasing water temperature.

The middle of the infographic has text describing these features and fisheries management actions.

Climate change affects species living at the seafloor

Some groundfish and shrimp stocks have declined since the 1950s. To protect them, Canada monitors these important species. When necessary, fisheries are reduced or limited to certain areas.

Fisheries management actions

Maintaining sustainable fisheries

Monitoring

• climate
• ecosystem
• ocean

Groundfish

Groundfish move north and into deeper water to find colder water

• Deep
  • Colder water
• Shallow
  • Warmer water

Shrimp

Abundance of smooth pink shrimp (Pandalus jordanii) falls as water temperature rises

Population / Water temperature