Climate change is adding to the sense of urgency within fisheries and aquaculture for the need to improve the resilience of human and aquatic systems. The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries and Aquaculture provide many principles, strategies and tools that can be implemented today to lessen these socialecological systems’ exposure and sensitivity to climatic change as well as increasing their adaptive capacities. Application of the EAF/EAA will help to ensure that effective stakeholder involvement in both monitoring changes and adaptation planning becomes the default approach to ensuring resilience of the socio-ecological systems and to minimize unintended consequences of adaptation and mitigation actions. Integrated adaptation planning and implementation within a systems approach will not only allow for the specificity needed within each sector but also for addressing issues shared across sectors within a broader system. Efforts are needed to improve and downscale our understanding of current vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies of the sector to prepare the sector for its own climate change planning and also to enable the sector to participate in national climate change planning, including providing feedback on the impacts of adaptation and mitigation actions from other sectors. Technological innovation, public and private insurance schemes and disaster risk management will also provide necessary adaptation options but putting into place robust and effective management now will be the key to ensuring and enhancing the benefits derived from fisheries and aquaculture.