I've never had the pleasure of participating in trout fishing, but oh, that fish: on a cedar plank, smoked, as jerky, the turkey of America's fishes.
Well, folks, you better enjoy them while you can, especially you fishers: scientists have just published a study showing that trout habits will shrink rapidly this century due to–you know it!–global warming.
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You'll have to be a scientist or nerdy college student to read the full report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but the free summary spells out the doom-and-gloom: brook trout populations will fall by 77%, brown by 48, and the legendary rainbow by 35, all because of shifting temperatures across the United States and its subsequent havoc on ecosystems.
“Despite some uncertainty, large declines in trout habitat are likely,” the summary concludes, but they try to spin it positively by arguing, “our findings point to opportunities for strategic
targeting of mitigation efforts to appropriate stressors and locations.” Meaning…better fly-fish in Montana while you can.
