Study: Changes to ocean expected to damage shellfish around world

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/17/ocean.acidification/

Study: Changes to ocean expected to damage shellfish around world

By Shelby Lin Erdman, CNN

(CNN) -- Massive global greenhouse gas pollution is changing the chemistry of the world's oceans so much that scientists now predict it could severely damage shellfish populations and the nations that depend on the harvests if significant action isn't taken.

A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts shows that ocean acidification is becoming a very serious problem. The study was published in July online in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

"What the study found was that in the next 10 to 50 years many countries are going to see impacts, particularly countries that are heavily reliant on clams and oysters and mussels, and will not be able to adapt by shifting to other foods or aquaculture methods," said Jackie Savitz, senior scientist and chief strategist for the international ocean conservation and advocacy organization Oceana.

…

Those countries directly impacted are mostly poor and developing nations that are heavily dependent on shellfish as main sources for protein, like Senegal, Madagascar and Haiti. But the research also suggests damage caused by ocean acidification could ripple across economies around the world. It's already blamed for economic losses at oyster farms in the Pacific Northwest and the slowing of coral growth in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, according to Oceana.

…

[caraher]

1. This is a big reason why I hate "geoenigineering solutions"

The problem isn't merely warming, it's the whole panoply of side effects of releasing what I think of as "fossil carbon" into the air and water. We're well on our way to doubling the atmospheric concentration of an important trace gas and that has more effects than just its influence on the greenhouse effect.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. A good reason to hate /some/ geoengineering "solutions"

Some “solutions” are methods intended to lower CO₂ which would help the oceans.

(See “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar">Biochar” for example.)

[txlibdem]

3. Fossil fuel use is killing the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams -- we are next

Most people think that they don't care about the oceans and the life that exists there. 2/3rds of the oxygen on the planet is created by ocean life. If we do nothing to stop the killing of the oceans then we are complicit in killing ourselves.

Thank you for posting this!


:kick:

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. You’re welcome!

Without healthy oceans, we’re dead.

[stuntcat]

6. "Without healthy oceans, we’re dead."

so so right. Too late to rec, but :kick:

[Pooka Fey]

5. K&R