Wild Capture Fisheries Research Articles

Climate change undermines seafood micronutrient supply from wild-capture fisheries in Southeast Asia and Pacific Island countries

Marine ecosystem functions are affected by climate change impacts such as ocean warming, deoxygenation and acidification. These impacts drive changes in distributions and body size of fish species and directly affect fisheries. Wild-capture fisheries are crucial for providing nutrients, livelihoods, and employment in tropical Southeast Asia and Pacific Island countries, where coastal communities are highly vulnerable to climate change. We examined the impacts of climate change on fish stocks and nutrient availability of seven key micronutrients (calcium, Omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and zinc) in Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). We combined micronutrient demands by local human populations with Sea Around Us reconstructed catch time series and catch projections from a dynamic bioclimate envelope model for the 21st century. The model predicted a decline in the Maximum Catch Potential (MCP) within Exclusive Economic Zones for Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asian countries. Under the ‘strong mitigation’ scenario, catch potential reductions ranged from a decline of 54–66 % in Oceania, 58–92 % in Pacific Islands, and 65–86 % in Southeast Asia by the mid to the end of the 21st century relative to the historical period, respectively. Under the ‘no-mitigation’ climate scenario, reductions were more severe, with a decline of 55–70 % in Oceania, 66–92 % in Pacific Islands, and 70–86 % in Southeast Asia for the same time periods. Our findings indicate that Australia and New Zealand are unlikely to meet the recommended nutrient intake demand for most micronutrients through their fisheries (not considering trade or aquaculture production), except for iodine and vitamin B12. Pacific Island countries will likely follow the same pattern while Southeast Asia is expected to face worsening deficits, except for iodine and vitamin B12. This study highlights the importance of incorporating nutritional considerations of seafood into national food, trade and economic policies.

Fisheries Impact Pathway: Making Global and Regionalised Impacts on Marine Ecosystem Quality Accessible in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Fisheries Impact Pathway: Making Global and Regionalised Impacts on Marine Ecosystem Quality Accessible in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Environmental DNA as a tool to reconstruct catch composition for longline fisheries vessels

Global wild-capture fisheries are a large and diverse sector requiring various tools for fisheries-dependant data collection and effective Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS). Here we present a novel protocol to collect eDNA from brine tanks onboard commercial longline vessels to reconstruct catch composition. We collected samples from nine vessels operating out of the Eastern Tuna Billfish Fishery, Australia, validating eDNA results with reliable catch data consisting of seven target and bycatch species. Environmental DNA was highly effective for detecting species retained on vessels without contamination or false positives. For four vessels, logbook data and eDNA were consistent with detections of all species. The remaining vessels detected all species except for rare catches of short-billed spearfish (Tetrapturus angustirostris). Similarities between rank abundance distributions of catch and eDNA reads were observed with logbook data mirrored when eDNA sequences were organised into rank order abundance. The method was effective at identifying highly abundant taxa retained in brine tanks- tuna (Thunnus spp.), swordfish (Xiphias gladius), marlin (Kajijia audax), and Atlantic Pomfret (Brama brama). Further research is required to validate how eDNA and other molecular monitoring tools can be scaled and applied to provide solutions for monitoring challenges in the fisheries sector.

Element contamination of the Orange-Vaal River basin, South Africa: a One Health approach

Numerous low-income groups and rural communities depend on fish as an inexpensive protein source worldwide, especially in developing countries. These communities are constantly exposed to various pollutants when they frequently consume polluted fish. The largest river basin in South Africa is the Orange-Vaal River basin, and several anthropogenic impacts, especially gold mining activities and industrial and urban effluents, affect this basin. The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries in South Africa has approved the much-anticipated National Freshwater (Inland) Wild Capture Fisheries Policy in 2021. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze element concentrations in the widely distributed Clarias gariepinus from six sites from the Orange-Vaal River basin and (2) to determine the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic human health risks associated with fish consumption. The bioaccumulation of eight potentially toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn) was assessed in C. gariepinus from sites with different anthropogenic sources. The human health risks were determined to assess the potential risks posed by consuming contaminated C. gariepinus from these sites. Carcinogenic health risks were associated with fish consumption, where it ranged between 21 and 75 out of 10,000 people having the probability to develop cancer from As exposure. The cancer risk between the sites ranged between 1 and 7 out of 10,000 people to developing cancer from Cr exposure. A high probability of adverse non-carcinogenic health risks is expected if the hazard quotient (HQ) is higher than one. The HQ in C. gariepinus from the six sites ranged between 1.5 and 5.6 for As, while for Hg, it was between 1.8 and 5.1. These results highlight the need for monitoring programs of toxic pollutants in major river systems and impoundments in South Africa, especially with the new fisheries policy, as there are possible human health risks associated with the consumption of contaminated fish.Graphical

Economic feasibility study for the expansion of the Cyprus aquaculture sector: A roadmap for transition to offshore in the Mediterranean Sea

Global demand for seafood is constantly increasing, driven by population growth and rising per capita consumption. While wild-capture fisheries are facing limitations in meeting this demand, the expansion of aquaculture emerges as the only solution. This paper investigates the potential for increasing the aquaculture production in the Republic of Cyprus by transitioning towards offshore aquaculture farms. The model developed provides a valuable roadmap for offshore transitions in Mediterranean near-coast areas. The study includes a detailed economic analysis coupled with sensitivity analysis to assess the feasibility of this transition considering various expansion scenarios. The results provide valuable insights into the viability and implications of this process, highlighting economic and operational issues.

Southern responses to Northern-led sustainability certification: Promoting and hindering new fisheries governance in The Gambia, West Africa

Ocean governance is constituted by a range of institutions and actors across nation-states, markets, civil society and communities. As government-led management of commercial wild capture fisheries came under increased scrutiny following the rise of neo-liberalism and overfishing in the late 20th century, many non-governmental organizations and businesses turned to market and consumer-oriented approaches such as eco-labels and certification systems to define and reward sustainable fisheries and to incentivize change in others. However, our understanding of how small-scale fisheries in the Global South engage with these systems over time remains limited, particularly in the African context. This paper seeks to improve understanding by examining the interactions between diverse actors working to achieve Marine Stewardship Council certification for a small-scale fishery in The Gambia, West Africa, one of the earliest in Africa to engage the program. Situating the study within social science research on inequities and power imbalances in Southern engagements with Northern-led sustainability certifications, the case study analyzes qualitative data from documents and from 16 key-informant interviews. The data was organized using a social science approach which enables the analysis of factors promoting or hindering governance interactions and of who and what drives outcomes. Taking multiple factors into account, this paper argues that Southern interest in, and accessibility to, certification is dynamic, and influenced by the uneven distribution of regulatory resources, capacity, power and benefits. Promised but nebulous benefits clashed with arduous and recurring appraisals, exacerbating institutional factors leading the fishery to repeatedly fall short of certification. While important improvements can be gained from the pursuit of certification, Southern producers, managers and policy makers should have opportunities to be better informed about the diverse factors impacting: i) governance interactions and capacity building, ii) paths towards, and barriers to, improvements, and ii) the likelihood, or not, for achieving equitable access and social development benefits, especially for marginalized producers. The role and significance of sustainability certification in future ocean governance will be shaped fundamentally by such knowledge.

Adapting the marine stewardship council's risk-based framework to assess the impact of towed bottom fishing gear on blue carbon habitats.

Wild capture fisheries are of economic and social importance, providing a primary source of protein to people globally. There is a broad research base on the environmental impacts of fishing gears and processing methods yet, the impact on the global CO2 budget is less well studied. Evaluating the risk that wild capture fisheries pose to ecosystem health is vital to sustainably managing fishing practices to meet increasing global nutritional needs and reverse declines in marine biodiversity. At the same time meeting net-zero ambitions by reducing direct and indirect GHG emissions is vital. Ecological risk assessments, trait-based assessments, and vulnerability assessments have long supported fisheries management systems globally but do not yet provide any representation regarding the impacts that fishing gears have on the ability of the habitat to capture and store carbon. Considering the importance of accessibility and transparency in approaches necessary for fisheries sustainability certifications, this paper describes a method to integrate habitat carbon capacity attributes into the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Consequence and Spatial Analysis (CSA) framework. Applying the CSA carbon extension developed herein produces different CSA risk scores compared to the MSC CSA that does not account for carbon. This has potential consequences for certification schemes as carbon becomes more important in the fisheries sustainability conversation. The CSA carbon extension tool developed here is an important first step in incorporating carbon indicators into evaluations of fisheries that consider fishery carbon impacts.

Size-dependent thermal limits in Australian hybrid abalone: implications for productivity shifts with ocean warming

Ocean warming and extreme heatwaves threaten marine species supporting commercial fisheries and aquaculture. Predicting the responses of these industries to chronic and acute warming depends on understanding which life stages are most vulnerable, the potential for stocks to adapt to changing thermal environments, and the availability of thermally adapted genotypes to help enhance stock resilience through strategic interventions. Here, we shed light on some of these knowledge gaps by quantifying the critical thermal maximum (CTmax) of ~ 10–210 g hybrid abalone (Haliotis rubra × H. laevigata) from two farms representing contrasting thermal environments from south-eastern Australia. CTmax was not dependent on body size or provenance (farm) when heating rates were rapid (1 °C per h), but a significant relationship between CTmax and body size was observed when heating rates were slower and more ecologically realistic (1 °C per 12 h). Histological analyses revealed a negative relationship between CTmax and the stage of gonadal development when abalone were exposed to chronic thermal stress conditions. These results suggest that marine heatwaves and ongoing ocean warming might favour smaller, less fecund animals in natural and farm settings. This could potentially impact future harvestable biomass, recruitment and population dynamics in wild-capture fisheries, and production of larger, high-value animals in farm settings. This study adds to a growing body of literature pointing to complex and often negative effects of climate change on commercial fisheries, and the potential need for interventions aimed at bolstering fisheries resilience against the effects of ocean warming.

Species redistribution creates unequal outcomes for multispecies fisheries under projected climate change.

Climate change drives species distribution shifts, affecting the availability of resources people rely upon for food and livelihoods. These impacts are complex, manifest at local scales, and have diverse effects across multiple species. However, for wild capture fisheries, current understanding is dominated by predictions for individual species at coarse spatial scales. We show that species-specific responses to localized environmental changes will alter the collection of co-occurring species within established fishing footprints along the U.S. West Coast. We demonstrate that availability of the most economically valuable, primary target species is highly likely to decline coastwide in response to warming and reduced oxygen concentrations, while availability of the most abundant, secondary target species will potentially increase. A spatial reshuffling of primary and secondary target species suggests regionally heterogeneous opportunities for fishers to adapt by changing where or what they fish. Developing foresight into the collective responses of species at local scales will enable more effective and tangible adaptation pathways for fishing communities.

Seafood production in Northern Norway: Analyzing variation and co-development in aquaculture and coastal fisheries

Norway is one of the leading ocean-based food production nations. Its seafood industry comprises wild-capture fisheries and farmed fish production. Both industries play a provisional role but also contribute to economic development of the country and help sustain coastal communities, particularly, in Northern Norway. Coastal fishery has been the staple industry in Northern Norway for centuries, while aquaculture complemented the seafood production in this region only approximately 40 years ago. To date, there has been limited knowledge on how the two industries co-developed in Northern Norway. While there are controversies regarding the potential cost and benefit of aquaculture to local communities, only a few studies have addressed co-existence of the two seafood industries in Northern Norway on a municipality scale. In this study, we compared the development of coastal fisheries and aquaculture in Northern Norway over a 14-year period (2005–2018) using a Bayesian approach that allowed to fit a model specific to each municipality, accounting also for temporal changes in both industries. A strong stochastic spatial variation characterized both industries, indicating a sizeable gap in the seafood production between the municipalities. Finally, the study showed that the fisheries and aquaculture likely did not affect each other’s production, suggesting that there were no or few discernible conflicts or synergies between these two industries in Northern Norway. This study featured an advanced method for analyzing variation of seafood production per administrative unit that can be transferable to assess seafood development in other regions of Norway and beyond.

Integrated mangrove aquaculture: The sustainable choice for mangroves and aquaculture?

Aquaculture production is projected to surpass wild-capture fisheries as the primary source of aquatic animal protein in the near future. Farmed shrimp—which are amongst the most valuable aquaculture commodities—are raised predominantly in Southeast Asia and Latin America in a variety of production systems, spanning from extensive to intensive farming. Shrimp aquaculture has been widely criticized for causing mangrove forest degradation and loss, leading to calls for more sustainable aquaculture approaches that protect mangroves. Here we examine an approach promoted as more sustainable—integrated mangrove aquaculture (IMA): a type of farming where mangroves are planted in or alongside shrimp ponds. We argue that mangroves within IMA shrimp systems provide biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services that are, at best, compromised, especially when compared to intact mangrove forests. Given the rapid adoption of IMA approaches, including advocacy for uptake from many governments and non-governmental organizations, there is an urgent need to ensure that these and other aquaculture systems do not result in any conversion of intact mangrove ecosystems into aquaculture ponds, and to identify any benefits (or lack thereof) provided by IMA systems. The increasing adoption of IMA may offer false promises for managing trade-offs between increasing aquaculture productivity and mangrove forest conservation.

Increasing sustainability in food production by using alternative bait in snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) fishery in the barents sea

The use of food grade wild-captured species as bait for other fisheries questions the sustainability of food production. In pot fisheries, bait is an important factor determining the effectiveness of the gear. In snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) fishery, the pots are normally baited with squid (Illex sp.) and herring (Clupea harengus). This fishery uses substantial amounts of bait for each pot deployment, and it constitutes one of the largest expenses for operating the pots along with costs for fuel. Furthermore, reliance on bait that originates from wild-capture fisheries questions economic and environmental sustainability, and involves additional use of fuel for capture and transportation of the bait which increases the carbon footprint of the industry. Therefore, the use of alternative bait sources is needed. One such alternative bait source can be originating from processed by-products from commercial fisheries. However, for the new bait to be acceptable for the fishery, it must provide comparable catch efficiency as the traditional bait. Therefore, this study aimed at comparing the performance of a new experimental bait against the traditionally used squid bait in the Barents Sea snow crab fishery. The results showed no statistically significant difference in catch efficiency of target-sized snow crab. Specifically, a formal uncertainty estimation based on nested bootstrapping showed that there was no significant difference in efficiency between bait types for target-sized individuals for soak times typically employed in the fishery. Thereby this shows a potential to increase sustainability in food production and a positive effect on the size selectivity by additionally demonstrating a reduced capture of undersized individuals.

The future of marine fisheries management and conservation in the United Kingdom: Lessons learnt from over 100 years of biased policy

Marine wild-capture fisheries depend on the capacity of the ocean to provide a flow of harvestable resources to sustain the industry. Paradoxically, conventional fishing often undermines these resources by degrading the environment and overexploiting fish stocks. Many UK fisheries have declined for over a century due to a biased focus on their social-economic value and lack of recognition that they are social-ecological systems and need to be managed as such. With the UK’s recent transition to an independent coastal state, the Fisheries Act (2020) and associated Joint Fisheries Statement provide an opportunity to correct this. Focusing on the ecological foundations, a more sustainable future for UK fisheries may be achieved by: (1) implementing a conservative quota setting system based on Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), defined as that which would occur when the biomass of a population of the target species is at 50% of that estimated at carrying capacity, to set catch limits rather than targets. The biomass of fish stocks should be allowed to regenerate to a minimum of 120% of that which will achieve MSY to provide a buffer against the uncertainty in ecological response to climate change. (2) Fishing capacity should be reduced while redistributing a greater share of the quota to sectors of the fleet that are demonstrably more sustainable; recognising that short term compensation may be required by some to mitigate the impacts of displaced activity until the benefits of stock recovery are realised. (3) Greater restrictions should be applied to ensure the most damaging fishing techniques (e.g. bottom trawling and dredging) are prohibited as appropriate in the network of marine protected areas. Protection should be enforced to promote the regeneration of degraded habitats and restoration of fish populations to help achieve the objectives as set out in the Act.

Effects of constant flow velocity on endurance swimming and fatigue metabolism in red drum and blackhead seabream

Aquaculture has greater potential for seafood production than wild capture fisheries. To meet the growing demand for seafood, China's marine aquaculture industry has begun building deep-water cages in the open sea. However, under these conditions, fish encounter strong currents and waves, and ensuring their healthy growth is key to the farming process. To address these issues, it is necessary to study the sustained swimming abilities of cultured fish species. Blackhead seabream (Acanthopagrus schlegelii) and red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) are traditional economic fish species in China; however, their sustained swimming ability under a constant current has been underexplored. Therefore, we examined the endurance swimming ability of three size classes of blackhead seabream and red drum at 20 °C. The fish were then subjected to swimming tests of 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 min at a constant swimming speed of 0.55 m/s (0.80 m/s), 0.65 m/s (0.90 m/s), and 0.70 m/s (0.98 m/s). The fish were then dissected to obtain muscle, blood, and liver samples; sample metabolite concentrations were measured at six time points, each of which guaranteed five sets of valid data. The results indicated that red drum has a significantly stronger swimming ability, and can be cultured in waters with a short-term flow rate not exceeding 0.75 m/s or 3.5 BL/s. Further, blackhead seabream can be cultured in waters with a flow velocity lower than 0.55 m/s or 2.5 BL/s. The species-related metabolic differences were mainly reflected in the hepatic glycogen and blood glucose concentrations, and those in swimming ability caused by body length were mainly reflected by the hepatic glycogen concentration. The hepatic glycogen concentration had the most significant effect on fish with body lengths >28 cm (P < 0.05). Overall, the experimental results indicated that the liver plays a major role in the physiological level of fish swimming fatigue, providing a direction for further research.

Evaluating Catch-Only Methods to Inform Fisheries Management in the East China Sea

China contributes the largest catches to global marine wild-capture fisheries. The majority of them are harvested from China Seas which are highly productive, but are facing heavy fisheries exploitation. The status of exploited fisheries stocks in China Seas have remained largely unknown due to severe data-limited conditions, which hindered their sustainable use and effective management. Although the off-the-shelf use of catch-only methods (COMs) has been cautioned because of their poor estimation performance, such methods have been increasingly applied to infer the status of exploited stocks in China Seas without performance evaluation. In this study, we established an empirical approach to evaluate the performance of a suite of COMs in predicting stock biomass status for the data-limited fisheries in the East China Sea (ECS) from data-rich stocks with similar characteristics in the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database (RLSADB). The results confirmed that ensemble approaches performed better than the individual COMs in estimating the mean of stock biomass status for data-rich stocks selected from RLSADB. By contrast, mechanistic COMs demonstrated more accurate estimates when predicting the trend of stock biomass status. The stock status of commercial fisheries in ECS estimated by three mechanistic COMs (Catch-MSY, CMSY, and OCOM) was likely too optimistic for most species. We suggest that China establish its national database and develop and implement regular monitoring programs to satisfy formal statistical stock assessment for its coastal fisheries.

The value of wild fish: diet and livelihoods in two rural villages in the Mun River Basin, northeastern Thailand

ABSTRACT Over the last few decades, much has been written about the negative impacts of hydropower dams on wild-capture fisheries in the Mekong River Basin. Furthermore, some studies associated with the water–energy–food nexus have appropriately linked the impacts of hydropower dams to fisheries and human nutrition. Although some research related to food security and nutrition considered changes in human dietary preferences over time, studies about the impacts of hydropower dams on fisheries often implicitly assume that there have been no changes in dietary preferences. Here, we investigate two communities located near tributaries of the Mun River in Ubon Ratchathani Province, northeastern Thailand. We find that while wild-caught aquatic animals remain important, their utilization has shifted due to changes in dietary preferences and other factors. In particular, people often sell wild-caught fish, and use the money to buy other types of animal protein to consume. We suggest that this important issue deserves more attention.

Reducing the Fuel Use Intensity of Fisheries: Through Efficient Fishing Techniques and Recovered Fish Stocks

Understanding the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in food production systems is becoming urgent. For wild capture fisheries, fuel use during the fishing phase generally dominates emissions and is highly variable between fisheries. Fuel use is also essential for the economy of the fisheries, but fuel-intensive fisheries can still be profitable due to fuel subsidies, in particular, if the target species is of high value. Developing an innovative bottom-up approach based on detailed catch and spatial fishing effort data, in the absence of direct fuel data, we analysed the fuel use intensity (fuel use per kg landed) and economic efficiency (landing value per litre fuel used) of Danish capture fisheries for the period 2005-2019. An overall decline in fishing effort did not significantly affect the overall fuel use intensity and efficiency, which was stable for most of the fleet segments and marine species. Robust differences in fuel use intensity among individual fisheries, reflected differential spatial accessibility and vulnerability of target species to fishing. In addition, different fishing techniques targeting the same set of species showed differences in fuel use per unit landed. Danish seining and gillnets had a lower fuel use intensity and higher economic efficiency than demersal trawling; and purse seining than pelagic trawling. The variability between stocks and fleets also indicates that there is generally potential for improvement in overall efficiency from improved stock status. Short-term management actions to promote the best available fuel-efficient fishing techniques combined with additional long-term actions to secure the recovery of stocks have the potential to reduce fishery greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable fisheries and normative environmental management are crucial to developing incentives towards reducing fuel use whenever the fishing sector industry and science work jointly at implementing solutions, as incentives for the industry to reduce fuel use are limited as long as the fishing activity is profitable.

Plenty more fish in the sea? - is there a place for seafood within a healthier and more sustainable diet?

Fish and other seafood species play an important nutritional, economic and social role within current diets worldwide, providing significant amounts of protein and micronutrients for an estimated 3billion people. Advice to consume fish is a common feature of dietary guidelines globally, including in the UK. However, increased global demand for seafood has led to overfishing and environmental damage linked to aquaculture expansion; issues, which are exacerbated by climate change. This raises the question of whether future demand for seafood can be met sustainably. In this article, we provide professionals working in diet, nutrition and health with an insight into the challenges facing the seafood sector and offer advice on how consumers may include seafood within a healthier and more sustainable diet. While a complex and multi-faceted challenge, fisheries scientists estimate that successful implementation of better management practices (for farmed and wild-capture fisheries) can meet future demand, allow fish stocks to rebuild to sustainable levels, help mitigate environmental effects of aquaculture, and ensure profitable fisheries to support the ~60million people employed by the seafood sector globally. Those working within the UK food system, including nutrition and health professionals, and businesses, can support the transition towards a more sustainable future for seafood by: encouraging consumption of a wider variety of species by UK consumers; increasing awareness of and knowledge about 'ecolabel' certifications designed to help consumers identify more sustainable choices; and engaging with multi-stakeholder initiatives addressing sustainability challenges facing the seafood sector.

Evolutionary Impact of Size-Selective Harvesting on Shoaling Behavior: Individual-Level Mechanisms and Possible Consequences for Natural and Fishing Mortality.

AbstractIntensive and size-selective harvesting is an evolutionary driver of life history as well as individual behavioral traits. Yet whether and to what degree harvesting modifies the collective behavior of exploited species are largely unknown. We present a multigeneration harvest selection experiment with zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model species to understand the effects of size-selective harvesting on shoaling behavior. The experimental system is based on a large-harvested (typical of most wild-capture fisheries targeting larger size classes) and small-harvested (typical of specialized fisheries and gape-limited predators targeting smaller size classes) selection lines. By combining high-resolution tracking of fish behavior with computational agent-based modeling, we show that shoal cohesion changed in the direction expected by a trade-off between individual vigilance and the use of social cues. In particular, we document a decrease of individual vigilance in the small-harvested line, which was linked to an increase in the attention to social cues, favoring more cohesive shoals. Opposing outcomes were found for the large-harvested line, which formed less cohesive shoals. Using the agent-based model, we outline possible consequences of changes in shoaling behavior for both fishing and natural mortality. The changes in shoaling induced by large size-selective harvesting may decrease fishing mortality but increase mortality by natural predators. Our work suggests an insofar overlooked evolutionary mechanism by which size-selective harvesting can affect fishing and natural mortality of exploited fish.

Marine climate change risks to biodiversity and society in the ROPME Sea Area

The subtropical ROPME Sea Area (RSA), comprising the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the northern Arabian Sea, is a heavily exploited sea region that experiences extreme environmental conditions, and for which climate change is expected to further impact marine ecosystems and coastal communities, sectors and industries. Climate change risk assessments provide a valuable tool to inform decision-making and adaptation planning through identifying and prioritising climate risks and/or opportunities. Using the first UK Climate Change Risk Assessment as an example, a marine climate change risk assessment was undertaken for the marine and coastal environment of the RSA for the first time. Through an extensive literature review and a workshop involving regional experts, marine and coastal climate change risks were identified, scored and prioritised. A total of 45 risks were identified, which spanned two key themes: ‘Risks to Biodiversity’ and ‘Risks to Economy and Society’. Of these, 13 were categorised as ‘severe’, including degradation of coral reefs and their associated ecological assemblages, shifts in the distribution of wild-capture fisheries resources, changes to phytoplankton primary productivity, impacts on coastal communities, threats to infrastructure and industries, and impacts on operations and safety in maritime transport. The diversity of risks identified and their transboundary nature highlight that climate change adaptation responses will require coordinated action and cooperation at multiple scales across the RSA. This risk assessment provides a crucial baseline for a largely overlooked geographic area, that can be used to underpin future decision-making and adaptation planning on climate change, and serve as a ‘blueprint’ for similar assessments for other regional shared seas.