Climate change is set to have a significant impact on Australia's fisheries yields, with the industry putting plans in place to battle the expected drop.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's most recent report shows fisheries yields in Australia will fall by between 3 and 10 per cent if average global temperatures increase by 0.9 to 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The report warned that if the warming of the planet continued uncontrolled and average temperatures rose by between 2.4C and 5.2C, yields could fall by up to 30 per cent.
Australian Institute of Marine Science principal researcher Mark Meekan says Australia's fisheries industry is fragile and even keeping warming to 1.5C will see a significant drop.
"Particularly, it doesn't bode well for fisheries for the reason that the most productive fisheries are in temperate regions and that's where much of the protein in the world's fisheries comes from," he said.
"To our north where we have coral reefs, warming brings on bleaching and brings on the destruction of coral reefs.
"As we move south, it's fishes that may be temperate, more cold-water adapted.
"As the water warms and pushes south, the range of those fishes literally falls off the continent. They can't head south to cooler water anymore."
Dr Meekan said that while warmer waters promote faster fish growth, it tended to result in smaller fish, also bringing down total fisheries yields.
Much of the Asia-Pacific region — including around Indonesia and the Pacific Islands — could also see fisheries stock fall, according to the IPCC report.
Call for climate recognition
Australian Marine Conservation Society sustainable seafood program manager Adrian Meder said Australian fisheries were already feeling the effects of a warming planet.
"In South Australia we're seeing thousands of tonnes of potential catch written off already due to the effects of climate change," Mr Meder said.
"We only expect to see that worsen. We're already seeing stocks overfished and we're seeing overfished stocks failing to recover."
Mr Meder says Australian fisheries are making some progress on mitigating climate change, but the issue needs to be specifically addressed at a governance level.
"What we still don't have in almost all our fisheries is an explicit consideration of the effects climate has already had and the effects climate is predicted to have in the future built directly into how many fish we let our fishing fleets go out and catch each year," he said.
Climate challenges for stock monitoring
Australian Fisheries Management Authority climate adaption senior program manager Alice McDonald said it was becoming "increasingly evident" climate change was already impacting on fish stocks.
"A number of our fisheries have a number of adaptive mechanisms that take into account environmental risks and ecosystem variability," she said.
"However, climate change is presenting additional challenges to our management system.
"So we're undertaking a program of work to ensure that we're building our understanding of climate impact on fisheries and incorporating the best available science into our management."
While the IPCC's latest report does forecast dire consequences for the future of the planet if climate change is not addressed, Dr Meekan said the future could be brighter.
"Right now we're at a crossroads and that's what the IPCC report basically points out," Dr Meekan said
"It's still not too late. We have all the techniques at our fingertips to actually change the trajectory that we're on.
"We need the determination to put all of those in to play."
