Cod, sole and plaice might be regulars on European dinner tables but as climate change heats the oceans, common species are heading to cooler northern waters — with profound potential consequences for fish stocks and consumers.

Experts say bluefin tuna, seahorse and the bright triggerfish from the tropics are swimming to Europe's warming seas while fish such as cod are migrating northwards.

According to Clara Ulrich, a fisheries scientist and assistant director at the French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea, the bluefin tuna is returning to the North Sea while seahorse and the tropical fish balistes are arriving in European waters.

Ulrich explained that fish populations in the south are becoming less and less productive and therefore their density is decreasing.

Overfishing is one thing to blame for depleting fish numbers and the destruction of underwater habitat.

Francois Chartier, head of the Greenpeace oceans campaign in France, said it is urgent that ocean food chains are maintained so that their role as a "carbon pump" is not jeopardized.

"Like forests, it absorbs CO2, it produces oxygen, it's photosynthesis, if you have a food chain in the ocean that is unstructured, you will have much more difficulty for the oceans to ensure that it functions in the climate system," he warned.

(All images via VCG)

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