What impact has climate change had on Irish fisheries?

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

The potential impact of climate change on industry is frequently speculated about, but the actual historical impact of climate change on industry is rarely studied. Studies of the impact of climate change on fisheries have been largely simulation based or speculative and rarely use historical data. No studies of climate change test to see whether economic factors or physical and biological factors have a greater impact on the fishing industry. If policymakers are to make informed climate policy decisions environmental economists need to forecast the likely consequences of climate change on industry and be able to judge whether these consequences are large or small compared with changes due to other causes. In this paper, the impact of climate change on Irish fisheries is examined using a panel data set of 506 observations, consisting of 46 cross-sectional units and 11 longitudinal units. A comparison is made of the impact of economic factors and the impact of climate change on fisheries catch. It is concluded that climate change has had a considerable impact on the Irish fishing industry. An attempt is made to quantify the monetary impact of climate change on Irish fisheries and the loss to specific Irish fishing ports.