Katherine Mills, Ph.D.

Research

Katherine Mills will study the effects of ocean warming on fish populations and develop management approaches to help fishermen adapt to climate change.

Elijah Miller

At the leading edge: Evaluating adaptation strategies to improve conservation and fishery outcomes in rapidly warming marine ecosystems

Katherine Mills will develop tools and management strategies that fisheries around the world can use to help fishers adapt to climate change while conserving the stocks they rely on.

Climate change is already having a significant impact on the marine environment. For example, warming waters have been associated with shifting species distributions, changing where fish and mobile invertebrates are found. Such shifts have important implications for global fisheries, as stocks enter new habitats, fishing grounds, and management jurisdictions. Rising ocean temperatures are also altering the timing of natural events, such as spawning, which can reduce the effectiveness of fisheries management policies.

Mills will analyze distribution shifts in 50 fish and invertebrate species in the northeastern United States to explore how different size fish within a population respond to warming waters. She will then use those data to develop a model to more accurately forecast populations’ responses to various harvesting and climate scenarios and recommend effective climate adaptation strategies and management approaches.

To learn more about Katherine Mills, read her bio.

See the full list of 2018 Pew marine fellows.