Climate change takes habitat from big fish, the ocean’s key predators

By PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — This year’s marine heat waves and spiking ocean temperatures foretell big changes in the future for some of the largest fish in the sea, such as sharks, tunas and swordfish. The rising temperatures of the oceans are especially dangerous for these fish because warming makes their open-water habitats less suitable. Loss of habitat could largely remove some of the most important predators from the ocean. One recent study, from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, predicts that some large species could lose 70% of their habitat by 2100.