10 million scallops are dead; Qualicum company lays off staff

Sad, but interesting for sure.
Makes me wonder how the oyster growers are doing.
And how the wild scallops are fairing.
 
Ocean acidification is a well known and predicted effect of climate change brought about by our addiction to fossil fuels. Moving the scallop farms to different waters with more currents etc. may buy some time but the demise of all shellfish and creatures that depend on them is assured eventually. The atmospheric load of CO2 hit 400 ppm for the first time in thousands of years (as measured by ice-cores) in 2013 and is now rising at about 1 ppm per year.

But don't worry, be happy and build more pipelines and join in the global fossil energy party! After all the climate change deniers tell us all is well.......
 
cuttlefish said:
Sad, but interesting for sure.
Makes me wonder how the oyster growers are doing.
And how the wild scallops are fairing.
Click to expand...

With ocean acidification due to climate change none of the shellfish are doing well - the following article is only 2 years old and apparently things are now much worse:

For more than two decades, Rob Saunders grew his shellfish larvae in ordinary seawater drawn from the pristine natural environment of Baynes Sound, one of the most productive shellfish farming areas on B.C.’s West Coast. Now the water in Baynes Sound is so acidic, Mr. Saunders’ fragile seed stock will die unless he artificially adjusts the PH level in his hatchery tanks.

“Because of ocean acidification the only way we can grow any larvae – oysters, clams, mussels, geoducks, you name it – is to take the CO2 out of the seawater,” said Mr. Saunders, CEO of Island Scallops, the largest producer of shellfish seed stock on province’s West Coast.

“We would have been out of business this year if we didn’t figure out how to solve the problem.”

Ocean acidification, a worldwide phenomenon linked to global warming, was identified as a serious threat to the shellfish industry in Oregon and Washington state five years ago.

Caused by the absorption of excess CO2 from the atmosphere, ocean acidification lowers ocean PH levels and reduces the concentration of calcium carbonate, a key building block of seashells and other marine skeletons.

Mr. Saunders is currently taking part in a two-year, $250,000 study of pH levels in the waters between Denman Island and Vancouver Island, about 20 kilometres south of Courtenay.


more at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...cean-threatens-shellfish-farms/article559811/
 
I'm going to play the fish farm card as a contributing factor causing fluctuating ph levels. Then, I'm going to throw Big Oil under the bus too.
 
That free seminar over in Vancouver touched base on this problem and how smolts feed on the scallop and crab larvae and years of high ph levels in the water the runs didn't do well. Interesting and scary stuff.
 
cuttlefish said:
Thanks for the link. Ironic that the ad to the right of the story is for Northern Gateway.
Really scary stuff. Baynes Sound without the oysters is like a banana split without the banana.
Click to expand...

It's not just Baynes Sound - all up the coast oyster and other bivalve farmers are finding the same results. The little shells are getting dissolved faster than they can be built.
 
Just a mater of time before all is lost....
The only thing I find interesting is in the comments on this article.
A well known Canadian AGW denier posted his theory as to why the scallops died.
I do believe that the only thing that could result in such a dramatic reduction in pH is an influx of fresh water. This has nothing to do with CO2. Seawater at 30PPT salinity is highly buffered against such a big shift in pH. But fresh water from runoff is often acidic and does not have this buffering capacity. Check your salinity Rob.
Click to expand...
Umm... Patrick check your weather it's been the driest winter with the first good dusting of moisture with this snow we just had. Comox Lake is at the lowest level that most old timers around here have every seen. Ever heard of freshnet? But I suspect you know all this and your PR job is to sow doubt as to why our local industry is crashing. It's all natural. Natural my foot.... Are you telling us that scallops die because of too much rain.... Someone needs a reality check because we get lot's of rain out here and we have been fighting and working to keep our runoff as clean as possible. We know the coal companies have their eye on us for a new mine. Patrick we know LNG, Coal, Tarsands, Logging and Fishfarms are on your client list....
http://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-moore
One question I do have is how did he know to post within a few hours of this story breaking the news? It's not like this is a well known newspaper website.... I wonder if someone tipped him off so he could work his damage control for his clients.... Shameful....
Just a matter of time before all is lost....
If we can't grow scallops do you think the other wild shellfish have a chance?
Do we have to wait for these AGW fossils to pass into the night before anything changes?

Time to setup and make your voice heard or sit back and watch it all disappear.
Your choice but I guesses you know what I'll do.
GLG
 
Saunders said in the first article that he has been measuring the CO2. He's likely been measuring the salinity as well since he has millions at stake. Moore has had foot in mouth disease for a long time. I think it's because he has eaten too much farmed salmon.

NOAA calls OA "the osteoporosis of the sea". This link shows its effect on pteropods in just six days. Pterodods are an important prey for pink salmon and, likely, sockeye. http://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/AreasofFocus/BiologicalResponse/Pteropods.aspx
 
GLG said:
Just a mater of time before all is lost....
The only thing I find interesting is in the comments on this article.
A well known Canadian AGW denier posted his theory as to why the scallops died.

Umm... Patrick check your weather it's been the driest winter with the first good dusting of moisture with this snow we just had. Comox Lake is at the lowest level that most old timers around here have every seen. Ever heard of freshnet? But I suspect you know all this and your PR job is to sow doubt as to why our local industry is crashing. It's all natural. Natural my foot.... Are you telling us that scallops die because of too much rain.... Someone needs a reality check because we get lot's of rain out here and we have been fighting and working to keep our runoff as clean as possible. We know the coal companies have their eye on us for a new mine. Patrick we know LNG, Coal, Tarsands, Logging and Fishfarms are on your client list....
http://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-moore
One question I do have is how did he know to post within a few hours of this story breaking the news? It's not like this is a well known newspaper website.... I wonder if someone tipped him off so he could work his damage control for his clients.... Shameful....
Just a matter of time before all is lost....
If we can't grow scallops do you think the other wild shellfish have a chance?
Do we have to wait for these AGW fossils to pass into the night before anything changes?

Time to setup and make your voice heard or sit back and watch it all disappear.
Your choice but I guesses you know what I'll do.
GLG
Click to expand...
GLG - I did a little more thinking about this story and I do think there must be something in addition to CO2 going on here. The article claims that the pH has gone from a norm of 8.1-8.2 down to 7.3. This change is attributed to "carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically in the waters of the Georgia Strait". However, the average change in ocean pH worldwide is only about -0.11 since pre-industrial times and is estimated to change a total of -0.355 from pre-industrial levels by 2100 (NOTE: when I say "only" here I mean in relative terms as small changes do matter and since pH is a log 10 scale, one unit change in pH is a 10-fold increase/decrease in available H+ ions). However, I do believe that a change of -0.8to -0.9 is way more than can be attributed to CO2 alone unless for some reason CO2 levels are locally much higher there than elsewhere on the planet. That leads me to believe that in addition to changes in CO2 levels, something else is going on.

So while this Patrick guy may be a climate change denier/internet troll, he may have a point in this case. OR perhaps the article mis-quoted the pH levels or something.
 
seadna said:
GLG - I did a little more thinking about this story and I do think there must be something in addition to CO2 going on here. The article claims that the pH has gone from a norm of 8.1-8.2 down to 7.3. This change is attributed to "carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically in the waters of the Georgia Strait". However, the average change in ocean pH worldwide is only about -0.11 since pre-industrial times and is estimated to change a total of -0.355 from pre-industrial levels by 2100 (NOTE: when I say "only" here I mean in relative terms as small changes do matter and since pH is a log 10 scale, one unit change in pH is a 10-fold increase/decrease in available H+ ions). However, I do believe that a change of -0.8to -0.9 is way more than can be attributed to CO2 alone unless for some reason CO2 levels are locally much higher there than elsewhere on the planet. That leads me to believe that in addition to changes in CO2 levels, something else is going on.

So while this Patrick guy may be a climate change denier/internet troll, he may have a point in this case. OR perhaps the article mis-quoted the pH levels or something.
Click to expand...

I agree. I change from 8.1 to 7.3 over that space of time is so huge that I have a hard time believing that it is CO2 alone. I am not a climate change denier, but when you look rationally at this Patrick does have a point or at least some other culprit (or a combination of factors) is at play here. Thanks for explaining the magnitude of the change (log scale) for the rest of the crowd, Seadna.
 
To be honest - having a change in the pH that dramatic (normal coastal waters range from 7.9-8.3) means that something BESIDES global warming/CO2 is happening here. My 1st guess would be to suggest that there is some freshwater run-off from somewhere close that is mixing with the sea water in an "estuarine" dynamic (freshwater pH is like 6.5 or close to that), and/or there is excessive decomposition somewhere handy that is lowering the pH and raising the redox. We are only getting a small part of the story here.
 
agentaqua said:
To be honest - having a change in the pH that dramatic (normal coastal waters range from 7.9-8.3) means that something BESIDES global warming/CO2 is happening here. My 1st guess would be to suggest that there is some freshwater run-off from somewhere close that is mixing with the sea water in an "estuarine" dynamic (freshwater pH is like 6.5 or close to that), and/or there is excessive decomposition somewhere handy that is lowering the pH and raising the redox. We are only getting a small part of the story here.
Click to expand...

wrong.

We are not getting the full picture here. Too many undisclosed parameters to even think about postulating.
 
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Acidic+water+blamed+West+Coast+scallop/9550861/story.html

according to Chris Harley, a marine ecologist at the University of B.C.

Rising ocean acidity is a global phenomenon, made worse by higher natural acidity in local waters, Harley said.

“I’ve seen pH measured down to about 7.2, so this is very much within the realm of possibility, though unfortunate and extreme,” he said. “We are in a hot spot in the Pacific Northwest.”



Mr. Harley does not explain why we have "higher natural acidity in local waters" which would be useful to know. It would seem we really are the Canary in the Coal Mine.
 
http://www.int-res.com/articles/cr_oa/c040p001.pdf

A complex system that one thing can make another thing worse.
pH change starts outside the SoG then other things inside makes it worse.
I'm sure we will be seeing more on this subject as this is serious stuff.
 
Fish Assassin said:
What's happening to wild scallops? Could the acidic water be what is killing sunstars?
Click to expand...
http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/

The proximal cause of the disease, when pathological studies have been done, is typically a bacterium (vibrio), although a recent wasting event on the east coast of the United States has been attributed to a virus. The ultimate cause is not clear although such events are often associated with warmer than typical water temperatures as was the case for the major die off in southern California in 1983-1984 and again (on a lesser scale) in 1997-98.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top