Introduction
The global warming has considerably changed the overall climate of the world. Changes in other sector of the ecosystem brought climatic change in the marine ecosystem. It has direct impact on the economy of North West Spain affecting the tourism and the fishery industry of the country. Identification of the change, affects and the policies taken by the government and the businesses to tackle with the threat is proposed in the following essay.
Effects of Climate Change in Marine Ecosystem
The global warming has led to the inclination in the temperature by 1.1 and 2.2ºC that resulted in decreasing the stream flow rate 13% and 29% respectively (Garza-Gil et al. 2011). On the other hand, a downfall of 25% in rainfall is also evidenced which also facilitates in the decrease in the stream flow (Garza-Gil et al. 2011). The current of the ocean has considerably changed due to low rainfall which resulted in increasing the temperature. The global warming is also altering the carbon, nitrogen and CO2 level in the water (Chang et al. 2016; Arias et al. 2014). Zooplankton, phytoplankton, fish, algae and many more system in residing in the ocean are facing considerable threat due to the change. Their sensitivity and stability is being affected which is resulting in extinction of these species.
Impact on Tourism business
On the other hand, the tourists’ density depends on several factors that include the climatic factors like temperature, sun and rain. Again, the tourism can be divided into domestic and international tourism. The tourists have considerably developed their consideration for visiting the coastal areas. The visible change occurred due to the climatic change in the coastal area and the change in the sea water. The main attraction in the scenario is the beaches of the spot. The increased water temperature created a suitable environment for the tourists. This can be considered as the primary reason for increased overnight stay by the tourists. Moreover, the number of non regulated income is getting higher than the regulated one. This changes the economic scenario of the country. The number of foreign tourist has also increased and represents. It means that the income from the foreign travelers has increased in a considerable level which was a considerable source of income of the country (Garza-Gil et al. 2011).
Effect on Country’s fishery
Spain’s anchovy fishery is one of the main economic activities of the population that is facing threat due to the marine ecosystem changes. The pelage species is rapidly losing the number. It is considered as a threat for the North West Spain as it has high commercial value. Significant modification in the number of anchovy biomass level brought a significant change in the situation of their fishery. Until recently, there was no regulation imposed on the fishing. Taking into account the recent development in the marine ecosystem, has lead to impose a precautionary TAC in 2005 by Bay of Biscay. Spanish government and regional government have imposed various regulations in input and output for a number of species due to their declination of the number. This resulted into downfall of the fishery business from 2005 and the recruitment is closed for uncertain period of time. The temporary ban on fishery was imposed on 2000 for the poor stock recruitment. In 2010, it was reopen with a TAC of 7000 ton of harvest. The control rules set by the government on anchovy are still under development and the permission of fishing is still uncertain. For the purpose of this regulation is to increase the density of the species and to decrease the changes of extinction (Garza-Gil et al. 2011).
According to Garza-Gil et al (2011), restriction set by the government on fishing will improve the marine ecosystem. This view has been opposed by different scholars and the business owners as it only impacts the fishery economy of the country. The government should come up with an effective way to control the water temperature which is the main reason of the situation. Spanish government and the European Commission on the other hand consider the control ethical on the grounds of saving an entire ecosystem. According to their point of view, it is more important to save a ecosystem than saving a economy as the people can consider other livelihood. They also considered the fishery economy of the country. The highlighted that restriction is needed to ensure the economic activity to survive over period of time. Moreover, their Natura 2000 proposal focuses on the management of the biodiversity of the sea. Different strategy is implemented to manage and ensure the fishery business by controlling the harvest. It serves both the purpose to save the biomass of the sea from extinction and to keep the fishing economy alive (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2015).
Theory to define situation
The Regulation theory can be spotted in this case scenario and different scholars defended the government’s policy using this theory. According to the theory the resources needs to be used sustainably and regulating is necessary to ensure the long time use of the resource. As the marine ecosystem is facing survival challenge due to the changes in the temperature, it is important to ensure their safety. This promotes the sustainable development (Aglietta 1998).
Conclusion
Conclusion can be drawn from the above discussion that global warming has caused considerable damage to the fishing and tourist economy of North waste Spain. In context to the fishery department, a notable degradation can be noticed due to the increased temperature of the sea water that has considerably modified the biomass. On the other hand, the number of tourist visit has considerably increased due to the same reason. The number of overnight stay has been increased. The necessary steps are taken by the Spanish government to ensure the improvement of the biomass. They are currently controlling the fishing activity to gain improvement in the communal density of the marine ecosystem. Moreover, they have implemented necessary policies to maintain the water quality of the coastal body.
References
Aglietta, M., 1998. Capitalism at the turn of the century: regulation theory and the challenge of social change. New left review, (232), p.41.
Arias, R., Rodríguez-Blanco, M.L., Taboada-Castro, M.M., Nunes, J.P., Keizer, J.J. and Taboada-Castro, M.T., 2014. Water resources response to changes in temperature, rainfall and CO2 concentration: A first approach in NW Spain. Water, 6(10), pp.3049-3067.
Chang, J., Ciais, P., Viovy, N., Vuichard, N., Herrero, M., Havlík, P., Wang, X., Sultan, B. and Soussana, J.F., 2016. Effect of climate change, CO2 trends, nitrogen addition, and land?cover and management intensity changes on the carbon balance of European grasslands. Global change biology, 22(1), pp.338-350.
Garza-Gil, M.D., Vázquez-Rodríguez, M.X., Prada-Blanco, A. and Varela-Lafuente, M., 2011. Global warming and its economic effects on the anchovy fishery and tourism sector in North-Western Spain. In Global Warming Impacts-Case Studies on the Economy, Human Health, and on Urban and Natural Environments. InTech.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015. Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.
Vargas-Amelin, E. and Pindado, P., 2014. The challenge of climate change in Spain: Water resources, agriculture and land. Journal of hydrology, 518, pp.243-249.
