Ongoing concerns about the impact of climate change on Australia’s oceans has driven a request from fisheries managers for improved science communication to the seafood sector. Despite these concerns, translating climate science into management and industry action at regional and sectoral scales remains a challenge. We developed a reporting structure for communicating climate and ecosystem status to fisheries management, indus...

Widespread marine heatwaves (MHWs) affected Australia over the 2024/25 summer and autumn. They impacted marine species, ecosystems, and coastal communities, with emerging economic consequences. Across northern Australia, severe coral bleaching occurred for the first time along both the western and eastern coasts, and a mass fish kill occurred in Western Australia. In South Australia, prolonged MHW conditions and impacts from a...

Meat quality is of paramount importance in the fisheries and aquaculture industries, but the quality of seafood can be affected by environmental variability and change, creating uncertainties in the delivery of consistent, high‐end product. Reports from fishers operating in an Australian fishery catching broadbill swordfish ( Xiphias gladius ) suggest that anomalously warm waters are linked with myoliquefaction of muscle tissu...

Forecasts of an El Niño in 2023/2024 raised concern among Australian marine stakeholders regarding its potential impacts on marine industries and systems. National level seafood-focused climate briefings were requested by the fisheries sector for the first time, driven by various state and regional level meetings and information requests. To respond to stakeholder needs, six virtual national marine climate briefings were under...

Ocean and climate drivers affect the distribution and abundance of marine life on a global scale. Marine ecological forecasting seeks to predict how living marine resources respond to physical variability and change, enabling proactive decision‐making to support climate adaptation. However, the skill of ecological forecasts is constrained by the skill of underlying models of both ocean state and species‐environment relationshi...

The production of marine protein from fishing and aquaculture is influenced by environmental conditions. Ocean temperature, for example, can change the growth rate of cultured animals, or the distribution of wild stocks. In turn these impacts may require changes in fishing or farming practices. In addition to short‐term environmental fluctuations, long‐term climate‐related trends are also resulting in new conditions, necessita...

Reduction of bycatch through spatial management is one possible approach in fisheries management. One requirement is description of the habitat of the species in question, and this is now possible for a range of species using data collected from electronic tags. Here we report on a spatial management approach used to limit unwanted capture of southern bluefin tuna (SBT, Thunnus maccoyii ) in the eastern Australia longline fish...