Marine fish are responding to climate change by relocating towards the poles

The majority of fish populations in the sea are responding to global warming by relocating towards colder waters nearer the north and south poles, according to the latest research on the impact of climate change on our oceans. Analysing the breadth of current world-wide data on marine fish changes in recent years, researchers from the University of Glasgow have revealed how fish populations across the Earth's oceans are responding to rising sea temperatures. The latest study has identified that, in response to ocean warming, many marine fish populations are shifting toward the earth's poles or are moving to deeper waters - all in a bid to stay cool. For marine life such as fish, the temperature of the surrounding water affects critical functions such as metabolism, growth and reproduction. Moreover, marine species often have a very narrow liveable temperature range making even small differences in the water impossible to cope with. As a result, marine life changes caused by global warming have been up to seven-fold faster than animal responses on land. Over the last century, global warming has had substantial impacts on marine ecosystems, with fish species disappearing altogether from some locations.