February 2025 Webinar: A focus on the Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative

Jointly hosted by the UN Ocean Decade Programs Blue Food Futures, Fisheries Strategies for Changing Oceans and Resilient Ecosystems (FishSCORE), Sustainability, Predictability, and Resilience of Marine Ecosystems (SUPREME), Sustainability of Marine Ecosystems through Global Knowledge Networks (SmartNet), and Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP) and endorsed project Basin Scale Events and Coastal Impacts (BECI).

This webinar series highlights current efforts and challenges at the climate-fisheries nexus. Presentations and discussions will range from data-driven efforts to better understand oceanographic and biological changes affecting fisheries, to how the results can be used to inform fisheries management, aquaculture, and sustainable food decisions, to the many ways people and broader communities are being impacted by and adapting to changes in marine ecosystems and marine resource use.

A focus on the Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched implementation of the Climate, Ecosystems and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI) to provide fisheries managers and fishing dependent communities with actionable information to prepare for and respond to rapidly changing marine ecosystems. The CEFI is building a nation-wide Decision Support System (System) that links climate, ocean and ecosystem observations and modeling to provide robust future scenarios and advice for climate-informed resource management and community adaptation. The System is composed of four components to ensure continuous innovation and operational delivery of information across multiple time and spatial scales. NOAA has launched development of the CEFI System with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. The funding has allowed the build out the System’s major components including state-of-the-art forecasts and projections of future ocean ecosystem conditions in each region, and regional decision support teams to provide the early warnings and advice needed for climate-informed fisheries management, protected species conservation, habitat protection and fishing community adaptation.

Webinar Presenter: Roger Griffis Roger Griffis is a marine ecologist with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Science and Technology based in Silver Spring, Maryland. As Climate Change Coordinator, he works with internal and external partners to increase the production and use of climate-related information needed to fulfill the agency’s fisheries, protected species and habitat conservation mandates in a changing climate. He is involved in several efforts to advance climate-ready decision making including the NOAA Climate, Ecosystems and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI) and the NOAA Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Grant Program (CAFA).