Recreational fishers’ perceptions of climate change

Shifts in marine species distributions associated with climate change occur across large spatial areas and long time periods. Marine recreational fishing occurs in most countries with many participants interacting regularly with the environment, yet there have been few studies on the views of recreational fishers towards climate change. This study aims to assess perceptions of climate change for a boat-based recreational fishery in Western Australia, where fishing occurs across a wide latitudinal range, from tropical to temperate waters. Perceptions of climate change were assessed by fisher demographics and fishing behaviour. One in two respondents noticed changes in species types and distributions, with metropolitan residents and avid fishers more likely to notice these changes. Two out of three respondents considered climate change is occurring, recognition of which was higher amongst metropolitan residents, females, and younger respondents. Males and older respondents, on the other hand considered themselves to have more knowledge of climate change science. This study provides a baseline to assist in informing policy changes that might be required to address the impacts of climate change. Studies of this kind can also build support for citizen science programs to enhance data collection across the spatial and temporal time scales required to observe climate change.

Normalized Difference Vegetative Index-related Assessment for Climate Change Impact on Indigenous Communities from High Resolution IKONOS Satellite Imagery in West Papua

High-resolution satellite imagery permits acquisition of critical data to observe climate-change and environmental impact on conflict-impacted indigenous communities with co-existing socio-economic factors, often within unstable regimes. Conflict may prevent direct access in remote regions to validate civilian conflict actor evidence. In such cases use of remote sensing tools, techniques, and data are extremely important. Software-based imagery assessment can quantify radiometrically calibrated or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and provide temporal changes with rapid detection over large search areas. In this work we evaluate recent trends in equatorial alpine glacier ablation to address the probability of indigenous water scarcity, as pure glacial water reserves are depleted near the Grasberg gold and copper mine in the Carstenz region, Western part of Papua Island, North of Oceania.