CalOceans News

Ocean acidification arrives in the Pacific NW

According to a recent article by Yale 360, the acidification of our oceans from an excess of carbon dioxide emissions has already begun. A recent die-off of oysters in the Pacific Northwest is a reminder that these changes to ocean conditions will have widespread impacts throughout the ocean food chain and coastal economies.  

Scientists in the article called oysters a bellweather, and say this is just a harbinger of things to come if greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar.  The fate of today's shellfish is actually dependent on the carbon release from tailpipes and smokestacks in the 1960's and '70s.

Because of the way seawater circulates around the world, the deep water now washing ashore in Oregon and Washington is actually 30 to 50 years old. This time lag is important because oceans absorb about 50 percent of the carbon released by burning fossil fuels, emissions that have been rising dramatically in recent decades.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ocean acidity has increased approximately 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution, and if we continue our current rate of carbon emissions, global oceans could be 150 percent more acidic by the end of the century than they have been for 20 million years.

• Tags:
• ocean acidification
• climate change
• shellfish
• climate impacts on the ocean