The CERES project’s synthesis report is now available for everyone to read.

The report focuses on the most commercially valuable fish and shellfish to identify the risks, opportunities, and uncertainties of climate change for Europe’s fishery and aquaculture communities.

The report’s results mean that fishery & aquaculture businesses and decision-makers in these Blue Growth sectors can now better anticipate, prepare and adapt to climate change and identify future opportunities.

Some of the results found in the report include:

  • details of the physical, biogeochemical, biological impacts of climate change on fish and shellfish on 37 valuable fishery and aquaculture species
  • estimates of the profitability of a variety of fleets (mixed- or single-species demersal and pelagic fisheries) across five regional seas using four climate change scenarios
  • 10 species- and region-specific ‘Typical Farms’ and calculated the economic consequences of four PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) climate change scenarios
  • vulnerability rankings for the European aquaculture sector based on physiological tolerance of nine key species and national economic data for 22 nations
  • projections of how climate change will affect the global fishmeal and fish oil trade
  • bottom-up (industry driven) and top-down (policy) solutions

The CERES project (Climate change and European aquatic RESources) was funded under the EU
Horizon 2020 programme from 2016 to 2020. CERES was designed to advance a cause-and-effect
understanding of how climate change will influence European fish and shellfish resources and
the economic activities depending on them.

More than 150 scientists from 26 partner institutions in 15 countries participated in this four-year project.
Partners included national research laboratories, universities as well as industry members from
the aquaculture (five partners) and fisheries (two partners) sectors and additional stakeholders.

CERES synthesis report (PDF, 18MB)

CERES case studies, showing how climate change will affect specific species and regions