Warming oceans may mean the return of bluefin tuna to UK waters.
What it means: Let’s be honest, climate change doesn’t generally sound like a lot of fun. According to most scientists, the price of upping our global temperature is more things like super-deadly hurricanes and mass flooding of coastal cities.
Warming the UK up a bit could also mean that new species who prefer higher temperatures could start hanging out in our land, air and seas. Some of these might not be so welcome (here’s looking at you, mozzies) but one species whose comeback would be cheered is the bluefin tuna, which is a bigass fish that makes an awesome wall trophy (although, folks, we *just* got them back ) and tastes delicious with a little seaweed, rice and wasabi.
Unfortunately, the bluefin tuna has been so overfished that it almost disappeared from UK waters about 40 years ago. But that’s now changing, thanks to a naturally-occuring warm current that’s making old Blighty the tuna equivalent of Champneys. That warm current isn’t linked to climate change, but experts reckon global warming is going to alter the places the bluefin tuna likes to hang out in the same way.
The result could be more and more bluefins in the UK over the next few years. Assuming the UK government reverses its current ban on fishing them, that could be good news for Brits who get money or enjoyment from catching big, tasty fish; commercial fisherfolk, people working in the fishing tourism industry or people who just love fishing.
Read our explainer on what the environment has to do with the economy.
