Chalk up one food win for global warming -- it's apparently producing large and abundant scallops off the coast of Britain.
A study published in Marine Biology noted an increase in the great scallop Pecten maximus over the course of 20 years of research by scientists at Bangor University and the University of York and Liverpool in England.
"It's great to provide some good news about one of our fisheries for a change. However, scallop fisheries are difficult to manage and have a history of boom and bust around the world. We must ensure this valuable resource is fished in a way that maximises yields and reproduction to ensure healthy stocks in the future."And so even as scientists are glad to have found that scallops will remain abundant in the near future, they're concerned that poor fishing habits and a desire to profit from the increased population will ultimately have negative effects.
A scallop fishing ban has already been instituted off the Welsh coast over concerns about overfishing.
But
the really bad news is that if temperatures continue to
rise, it could eventually adversely impact the scallop population's
ability to breed and survive:
A continued growthSo, in the interim, savor every buttery bite.in ocean temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions, raising the acidity
levels of the water, could also eventually affect the ability of
scallops to form proper shells and cause widespread mortality.
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