Understanding the extent and magnitude of change in marine food webs requires historical data that predates modern monitoring efforts. Such information can provide invaluable insights into the longer‐term impacts of altered trophic interactions, yet it is rarely incorporated into marine policy frameworks. Using multiple stomach records spanning over a century, we investigated long‐term changes in the diet composition of six de...

Recreational fishing is popular worldwide, but many low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) are experiencing increased participation and reduced catches. Like other LMICs, the recreational fishery in Namibia is facing concerns regarding its sustainability. Empirical evidence suggested limited knowledge of the fish and fishery as one plausible cause. Herein, we used a horizon scan survey to identify critical questions by angle...

Climate change continues to alter the productivity of commercially and culturally important fisheries with major consequences for food security and coastal economies. We provide the first, multi‐model projections of changes in the distribution and productivity of 18 key fish stocks across seven European regional seas spanning the Mediterranean to the Arctic, using 11 state‐of‐the‐art bio‐ecological models. Our projections indi...

In Namibia, fisheries are important for food security and protein provisioning, income generation and trade; but they are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Not only does climate change impact the marine living resources crucial to fisheries; but changes in weather, currents and storminess are affecting the safety and effectiveness of fishing. Here we ask: What are the key risks from climate change to the eight large...

Abstract Developed countries are increasingly dependent on international trade to meet seafood requirements, which has important social, environmental, and economic implications. After becoming an independent coastal state following Brexit, the UK faces increased trade barriers and changes in seafood availability and cost. We compiled a long-term (120-year) dataset of UK seafood production (landings and aquaculture), import...

Artisanal fisheries in Ghana account for more than two-thirds of the country’s food fish production and employ or support up to 2 million people. However, many fish stocks are close to collapse through overexploitation, especially stocks such as sardinella that are a staple food for Ghanaians. Climate change is expected to affect the fish themselves as well as fishing activities, increasing the already high risk to fishers’ li...

Sympatric flatfish predators may partition their resources in coastal environments to reduce competition and maximise foraging efficiency. However, the degree of spatial and temporal consistency in their trophic ecology is not well understood because dietary studies tend to overlook the heterogeneity of consumed prey. Increasing the spatial and temporal scale of dietary analyses can thus help to resolve predator resource use....

It has proven extremely challenging for researchers to predict with confidence how human societies might develop in the future, yet managers and industries need to make projections in order to test adaptation and mitigation strategies designed to build resilience to long-term shocks. This paper introduces exploratory scenarios with a particular focus on European aquaculture and fisheries and describes how these scenarios were...

The concept of “blue growth,” which aims to promote the growth of ocean economies while holistically managing marine socioecological systems, is emerging within national and international marine policy. The concept is often promoted as being novel; however, we show that historical analogies exist that can provide insights for contemporary planning and implementation of blue growth. Using a case‐study approach based on expert k...

Describing the spatial and temporal dynamics of communities is essential for understanding the impacts of global environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Trait‐based approaches can provide better insight than species‐based (i.e. taxonomic) approaches into community assembly and ecosystem functioning, but comparing species and trait dynamics may reveal important patterns for understanding community respon...

Phytoplankton primary production is at the base of the marine food web; changes in primary production have direct or indirect effects on higher trophic levels, from zooplankton organisms to marine mammals and seabirds. Here, we present a new time‐series on gross primary production in the North Sea, from 1988 to 2013, estimated using in situ measurements of chlorophyll and underwater light. This shows that recent decades have s...

Aim Studies focussing on long‐term changes in squid populations are rare due to limited availability of fisheries‐independent data. However, squid play an important role as predator and prey in marine food‐webs and have also become an increasingly important target for fisheries. Their short life history is thought to make them particularly sensitive to changes in the environment, potentially leading to strong fluctuations in p...

How have North Sea skate and shark assemblages changed since the early 20th century when bottom trawling became widespread, whilst their environment became increasingly impacted by fishing, climate change, habitat degradation and other anthropogenic pressures? This article examines long‐term changes in the distribution and occurrence of the elasmobranch assemblage of the southern North Sea, based on extensive historical time s...

Globally, spatial distributions of fish stocks are shifting but although the role of climate change in range shifts is increasingly appreciated, little remains known of the likely additional impact that high levels of fishing pressure might have on distribution. For North Sea cod, we show for the first time and in great spatial detail how the stock has shifted its distribution over the past 100 years. We digitized extensive hi...

Managing fisheries resources to maintain healthy ecosystems is one of the main goals of the ecosystem approach to fisheries ( EAF ). While a number of international treaties call for the implementation of EAF , there are still gaps in the underlying methodology. One aspect that has received substantial scientific attention recently is fisheries‐induced evolution ( FIE ). Increasing evidence indicates that intensive fishing has...

To anticipate the response of fish populations to climate change, we developed a framework that integrates requirements in all life stages to assess impacts across the entire life cycle. The framework was applied on plaice ( P leuronectes platessa ) and Atlantic herring ( C lupea harengus ) in the N orth S ea, A tlantic cod ( G adus morhua ) in the N orwegian/ B arents S eas and E uropean anchovy ( E ngraulis encrasicolus ) in...

The Barents Sea is the north‐eastern fringe of the distribution of blue whiting ( Micromesistius poutassou ). Fluctuations in distribution and abundance of blue whiting in the area have been marked. Two hypotheses are put forward to explain these fluctuations. First, rich year classes in the main Atlantic stock of blue whiting may contribute to increased abundance in the Barents Sea. Second, variations in hydrography, such as...