Transformational adaptation in marine fisheries

Climate change affects food production systems, forcing them to adapt. For marine fisheries, adaptation has been incremental and insufficient, and transformative adaptation stands as the opportunity for a timely transition to a more climate-resilient condition. Based on a limited transformational background that comes from the particularities of marine fisheries and experiences of non-climate change-oriented deep transformations in the past, we argue that transformative adaptation in fisheries must be local-to-regional in implementation but global in design. We propose two not mutually exclusive transformational change options: prioritize food security over other benefits derived from fisheries and implement a climate-responsive ecosystem approach for fisheries management. The first implies reconsidering the process of local-to-regional-scale decision-making by means of a scientifically robust, ample-scope, and equitable regionalization of the world ocean; and the second is the generation of ecosystem-level reference points, socioeconomic indicators, and improved forecasting capabilities that allow representing plausible ecosystem states at which exploitation levels of individual stocks can be defined. Limits and barriers to successful adoption include scientific uncertainty, political will, perceived level or risk, regulatory processes, and financial costs. Therefore, such transformations would necessitate consensual schemes of international cooperation, efficient information flow into local-to-regional normative frameworks, and the setting of mechanisms for stewardship and traceable evidence of compliance. •Transformative adaptation is needed to improve fisheries climate resilience.•Suggested to prioritize food security and climate-responsive ecosystem approach.•Barriers include uncertainty, political will, risk perception, regulatory, and financial costs.•International cooperation, information flow, and stewardship are enablers.