Climb aboard four fishing boats with us to see how America's warming waters are changing
Alaskan fisherman Garrett Kavanaugh anxiously awaits the first catch of the season, hoping the Dungeness crabs he's chasing haven't suffered the same fate as the vanished snow crabs.
Lobsterwoman Krista Tripp watches Maine's warming waters slowly push her catch further and further out to sea.
Diver Matt Pressly hunts for sea urchins in dwindling kelp forests off California's southern coast.
And Capt. Logan Lyons wonders aloud if it's even worth fueling up and heading back out to chase more shrimp in the storm-ravaged Gulf of Mexico off Florida.
The men and women who fish commercially off the shores of the United States have long battled the ocean, unexpected storms and the fickle nature of a quarry that can simply swim away. But scientists say climate change is rapidly complicating those existing challenges. It helps supercharge storms, heats the water, kills some species and prompts others to flee to colder waters.
USA TODAY, with support from the Pulitzer Center, brings you the stories of four fishers from around the United States. Each is seeing the impacts of climate change on an industry already struggling with the high cost of diesel fuel and the wildly fluctuating prices they get for their catch.
Experts say fishers around America can expect even more changes as Earth warms. Climate-change-fueled fishery collapses have already cost taxpayers billions of dollars in bailouts, and experts say all signs point to a worsening problem that's happening faster than most people realize.
Reckoning with these changes will stretch and stress the U.S. government, Indigenous communities, the approximately 39,000 commercial fishers and the millions of Americans who depend upon seafood as an important, affordable source of protein.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate change effects on oceans revealed in reports from across USA
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