If you're looking to catch that big fish - you better do it soon. A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change tells us that fish are going to shrink, and it's all because of climate change.
The planet's rising temperatures could have an inverse effect on the size of marine life, says the study which is based off more than 600 species of fish over the period of time from 2001 to 2050.
"The results suggest that oxygen-limited growth in aquatic water-breathing animals and species' range shift will translate, given their physiological responses to warming and changes in oxygen level, into a reduction in individual- and assemblage-level body size," reads the study.
How much smaller will our fish be? By up to 24 percent, the study says.
Cold-blooded animals, basically all living creatures other than mammals and birds, suffer more from rising temperatures because they cannot internally regulate their temperatures. This is why cold-blooded reptiles need to bask in the sun to warm up, and retreat deep into the shade when the sun is blistering.
"Rising temperatures directly increase the metabolic rate of the fish's body function," said lead author Dr. William Cheung from the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia to BBC News. "This leads to an increase in oxygen demand for normal body activities. So the fish will run out of oxygen for growth at a smaller body size."
Previous research had focused mostly on the habitats and reproductive cycles of fish; this study is the first one that looks at the effects on size.
The paper does admit though, that liberties had to be taken in order to calculate future fish size.
"This study requires a number of assumptions and simplifications to represent and project long-term changes in the complex biological and earth systems, and is thus subject to several sources of uncertainty," reads the study.
In either case, if the current trends continue, this could impact global food supplies - for both humans and marine life. And don't believe that climate change is the only variable straining marine life.
"Other human impacts, such as overfishing and pollution, are likely to further exacerbate such impacts," says the study.
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