Scientists warn that Arctic cod, a small fish that is critical to marine life in the North, could be in trouble from climate change and human activity.
"Tourists are not coming to the Arctic to see the Arctic cod, but they are coming to see the predators that are feeding on polar cod. It will have a cascading impact on the whole Arctic ecosystem as we know it."
The Arctic cod is not fished commercially but it is the most abundant forage fish in the Arctic seas, providing a key food source for other marine life. It spends its early life close to ice-covered and open water surfaces eating zooplankton, while adults seek out ocean depths of up to 100 metres. It belongs to the Atlantic cod family and measures less than 25 centimetres with a lifespan of under seven years.
The cod eggs do best at sea temperatures around freezing, while larvae tolerate up to 2 C. Anything warmer is "detrimental" to the animal, he said. Some parts of the Arctic Ocean are seeing temperatures near the surface, where most young Arctic cod live, above 2 C, he said.The Arctic cod is at its outer limit of tolerance along the southern boundary of its range -- in the Bering, Labrador, and Barents seas, he said.
Compounding the effects of climate change is human activity. "I think what we saw was that the main risk was really from oil pollution, rather than fisheries," Geoffroy said.
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