Climate change may be pushing Japanese sardines into US's EEZ

A chance discovery during routine research has revealed that Japanese sardines, previously thought to live only in the Asian North Pacific, have crossed into the American Pacific off the U.S. West Coast. “It was a total shock,” NOAA research scientist Gary Long said of the finding.In a paper published 23 October in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers suggested that climate change may be responsible for the fish's appearance. “Small coastal pelagic fish such as sardines are good indicators of change," Long said. "Often, they are the first ones we see responding to shifting temperatures because they have short generation times, are highly mobile, and can use a variety of habitats.” NOAA's annual survey of coastal pelagic species led to the surprise discovery of Japanese sardines in U.S. waters from Washington to Southern California, where only Pacific sardines were thought to reside. The two species are indistinguishable to the naked eye, but genomic analysis confirmed their ...