Whale sharks might be finding themselves in the path of ships more often in the future. Photo NOAA Unsplash
As our climate changes due to global warming, whale sharks could find themselves driven right into the path of oncoming ships. This was the conclusion of a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, titled “Climate-driven global redistribution of an ocean giant predicts increased threat from shipping.” In it, researchers from the University of Southampton and Marine Biological Association (MBA) used whale shark tracking data and global climate models to predict how the animals would redistribute in different climate scenarios.
Under the high emissions scenario, in which the changes were the most dramatic, researchers predicted core habitat area losses of >50% within some national waters by 2100. This, in turn, would drive the sharks into shipping routes, which could lead to shark-vessel collisions being as much as 15,000 times more likely (Interestingly, though, there were a few exceptions to this finding, such as in the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico, where the sharks would shift to coastal waters, away from shipping lanes).
However, there is still time to prevent the most dire consequences from occurring, said the researchers behind the study. “The shifts we predict are likely to be less extreme if we are able to slow warming and mitigate climate change, suggesting that even complex, multi-factor impacts of climate change can be somewhat alleviated by our actions,” Professor David Sims, co-author and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton and MBA, told Phys.org.
Lead author Dr. Freya Womersley, University of Southampton and MBA Postdoctoral Research Scientist, added, “We show that climate change has the potential to indirectly impact highly mobile marine species through interacting pressures of humans and the environment. This highlights the importance of factoring climate change into discussions around endangered species management.”
