NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy 5 Year Progress Report

The NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy (NCSS) was published in 2015 to increase the production, delivery, and use of the climate-related information needed to fulfill the agency’s mandates in a changing climate. The NCSS identifies a suite of objectives and specific actions focused on supporting infrastructure, tracking change, understanding mechanisms, projecting future conditions, and informing and supporting management.

NOAA Fisheries worked with partners in each region to develop seven Regional Action Plans (RAPs) to implement the NCSS over a 3 to 5 year period. In 2020, NOAA Fisheries conducted an assessment of progress to implement the NCSS over the five years since its release.

This five year progress report highlights the goals, activities, and accomplishments of the seven RAPs and national efforts from 2016 to 2020. Chapters are devoted to each region and provide summaries of the progress made to date to implement the NCSS. The chapters also provide recommendations for future focus areas and actions for continued progress towards achieving the NCSS objectives in each region.

Since 2016, progress has been made in several areas including tracking changes in ecosystem conditions, understanding impacts, projecting future conditions and assessing the vulnerability of fish stocks, protected resources, and fishery-dependent communities in a changing climate.

There is still much to be done. NOAA Fisheries is committed to addressing the high and growing need for climate-related information to help safeguard the nation’s valuable living marine resources and the many people, businesses and communities that depend on them. 

NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy Five Year Progress Report

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• National
• Pacific Islands 
• Bering Sea 
• Gulf of Alaska 
• Western
• Gulf of Mexico and Southeast U.S. Continental Shelf
• Northeast 
• Summary