No Fish, No Food

In Peru’s coastal waters, schools of anchovies once swam in abundance, allowing fishers to haul in ample catches year after year and making the country the largest anchovy producer in the world. But this year, after exploratory fishing vessels pulled in nets full of juvenile fish, the Peruvian government canceled the anchovy season entirely.

This is likely just a sample of what’s to come. As the ocean warms, across species are already migrating from their historic territories, declining in size, or both. This is, naturally, a problem for fishers who rely on fish for their livelihoods. But it could become a crisis for millions of people living in resource-deprived regions of the tropics like West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. People there depend heavily on the ocean for protein, as well as key minerals like iron and calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids that are essential to the brain and heart.