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Climate change not to blame for cod population decline

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Three decades of increasing temperature were expected to cause cod stocks to decline in the North Sea and Gulf of Maine, but they increased in the North Sea and declined in the Gulf of Maine. These trends are due to changes in fishing pressure rather than climate change.

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Fig. 1: Cod stocks and fishing mortality in the Gulf of Maine and North Sea.
Fig. 2: North Atlantic cod stocks with habitat temperatures.

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  1. DTU Aqua, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Keith M. Brander

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  1. Keith M. Brander
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Correspondence to Keith M. Brander.

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Brander, K.M. Climate change not to blame for cod population decline. Nat Sustain 1, 262–264 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0081-5

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