Strait of Georgia Is Turning to Acid, New Research Shows
- Thread starter Derby
- Start date
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
This explains the shellfish dies off and maybe starfish? Not good.
cuttlefish
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the cause of the starfish die off has been linked to the spread of a bacterial or viral infection. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/scientists-zero-whats-causing-starfish-die-offs/
However, the effect of ocean acidification on Atlantic herring warrants further research on it's effects on Pacific herring. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/int...seawater_damages_herring_organs_391na2_en.pdf
However, the effect of ocean acidification on Atlantic herring warrants further research on it's effects on Pacific herring. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/int...seawater_damages_herring_organs_391na2_en.pdf
OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
This might have something to do with it.
http://www.bucksuzuki.org/images/uploads/docs/Hidden_Killer.pdf
http://www.bucksuzuki.org/images/uploads/docs/Hidden_Killer.pdf
Derby
Crew Member
GLG
Well-Known Member
My understanding is what cuttlefish posted was the reason for the starfish die off.
Yup what you posted is not good but the real issue is the pH.
The far biggest threat is the pH problem that comes from burning fossil fuels at the rate we are doing it. At some point the base of the food chain will be affected and then it wont be long before everything we hold dear will be gone. If the salmon smolts have nothing to eat out there they will die. No smolts no adults.Then again if you think climate change is a hoax you have nothing to worry about. But in the real world many of us see the future and it's not going to turn out well for the next generation. Island Scallops can't grow scallops because of the pH problem. Quadra Island FN scallop farm had a die off also because of the pH. How do you think the wild ones are doing in the face of this evidence? What is next, a zooplankton die off? OBD if you truly cared you should investigate the problem and look at the evidence. Answer the question... Is the pH changing in the SoG and why is it changing. I have done my homework ... you need to do yours.
you know the arguments coming next GLG...
The starfish are liberals - not the all-knowing and seeing conservatives/republicans....
Starfish contribute to the problem by all of this fast travel all over the bottom of the ocean...
If starfish would play the stock market like a good investor - all their problems would be solved....
The starfish are liberals - not the all-knowing and seeing conservatives/republicans....
Starfish contribute to the problem by all of this fast travel all over the bottom of the ocean...
If starfish would play the stock market like a good investor - all their problems would be solved....
Cuba Libre
Well-Known Member
Google up "Clam gardens" There IS validity to the claim ... First Nations may well have been trading and bartering "cultured" clams to to other Bands
ziggy
Well-Known Member
Starfish are Liberals??? How do you know? Have they been hitting on female NDP MP's?
Cuba Libre
Well-Known Member
LOL!!!!!!! gudwan!
cuttlefish
Well-Known Member
Bringing this important issue back on track....
http://www.thefishsite.com/articles...tal-acidification-to-the-aquaculture-industry
http://www.thefishsite.com/articles...tal-acidification-to-the-aquaculture-industry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-news-if-you-like-oysters-scallops-and-clams/
Climate change is really bad news if you like oysters, scallops and clams
By Puneet Kollipara February 24
Oysters from a farm at Tangier Island in Tangier, Va. (Photo by Jay Westcott/For The Washington Post)
When it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, the first environmental problem that comes to mind is climate change. As humans pump more of this greenhouse gas into the air, the Earth gets warmer, and the climate changes in ways that could damage the economy, public health, infrastructure and society.
But along with climate change, these same emissions are causing another pernicious problem in our oceans. Some of the carbon dioxide we emit gets absorbed in sea water, where it turns into carbonic acid in a phenomenon called ocean acidification. As our emissions rise, the oceans will turn more and more acidic, irreparably altering aquatic ecosystems.
Ocean acidification might lack the rhetorical punch that “climate change” and “global warming” have. But as one new study shows, acidification could carry real economic and cultural risks, and we’re only beginning to understand them. Waters off the United States are home to countless oysters, clams, scallops and other shellfish that the seafood industry catches and grows for your dinner. In many of these regions — especially off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico — acidification could harm these creatures enough to deal big blows to local economies and meals, researchers reported Monday in Nature Climate Change.
As humans throw off the delicate water chemistry that shelled seafood species, such as oysters, scallops and clams, are accustomed to, it’ll become harder for them to survive because they’ll struggle to build or maintain their shells.
Still, the oceans are huge, and their conditions vary. So, as is the case with climate change, it’s not easy to forecast, and thus prepare for, acidification’s impacts on the regional level.
That’s why Julia K. Ekstrom of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a number of other researchers from academia and nonprofits decided to study how well U.S. coastal areas are equipped to deal with acidification’s impact on shelled seafood. They divided waters off the United States into 23 “bioregions” — each one being an area with a certain set of characteristics, such as plants, animals and climate.
This photo, taken on July 12, 2012 in St. Joesph Bay, Fla., shows harvested scallops. (AP Photo/Melissa Nelson)
To assess how vulnerable these regions’ shelled seafood is to acidification, the researchers added the effects of a range of factors. First, they assessed the drivers of acidification and accounted for other effects that can worsen acidity locally. One example is that too many micro-organisms grow when humans pollute the water with nutrient-rich agricultural runoff; all these additional living things, digesting the nutrients and growing, end up releasing carbon dioxide into the water, boosting its acidity.
The researchers also assessed each region’s ability to respond with policy actions to soften acidification’s blow in the event that the seafood industry struggles, as well as each region’s sensitivity to acidification (how much the local economy and culture depend on shellfisheries).
Out of the 23 bioregions, the researchers found that 16 will face dangerous ocean acidification or at least one force that could amplify it. And most of these 16 regions — especially areas in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico — have economies and cultures that depend heavily on shellfisheries. Moreover, many don’t seem to have the right policies, scientific information or economic alternatives to adapt.
A lot of jobs and economic activity are on the line. In the Pacific Northwest alone, acidification is already believed to have cost the seafood industry at least $110 million and affected at least 3,000 jobs. Oysters there are dying in droves as the waters turn more acidic.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has also noted that oyster-harvesting industries in Maryland and Virginia have lost $4 billion in the last three decades thanks to pollution and agricultural runoff, which can worsen acidification’s effects.
The more this happens, the more growers and shellfish farmers will go out of business, and the more costly it could someday become to enjoy your favorite seafood dinner. We also still don’t understand the value of other services that oysters, clams, scallops and other shellfish might provide, such as water filtration and coastal protection against storm surge; add in those factors, and even more is at stake.
But some areas, such as the Pacific Northwest and Maine, may not be as hard-hit; they seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to preparing, the researchers suggest. For example, Washington state convened a blue ribbon panel on the issue, and Maine last year created its own commission to study how acidification could impact commercially harvested aquatic species. Interestingly, in these areas, the waters’ acidity is expected to worsen sooner than in the other areas, the researchers say, because relatively chilly waters are better at absorbing carbon dioxide. Maybe the imminence of the problem has helped motivate stakeholders to move quickly to prepare.
To get better-prepared, we still need more science on ocean acidification’s impacts — this study was actually the first to look at acidification’s regional impacts in the United States. Ocean acidification has sort of swum under the public radar, and perhaps that’s a reason that research on acidification, particularly on its impacts, hasn’t gotten much attention. The researchers note that just $270,000 in U.S. funding went toward social science research on acidification in 2011 — just 0.1 percent of all acidification-related spending in that year’s budget.
In sum, there’s yet another burgeoning consequence of society’s carbon habit — and pretty soon, it may affect your seafood habit, too.
Climate change is really bad news if you like oysters, scallops and clams
By Puneet Kollipara February 24
Oysters from a farm at Tangier Island in Tangier, Va. (Photo by Jay Westcott/For The Washington Post)
When it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, the first environmental problem that comes to mind is climate change. As humans pump more of this greenhouse gas into the air, the Earth gets warmer, and the climate changes in ways that could damage the economy, public health, infrastructure and society.
But along with climate change, these same emissions are causing another pernicious problem in our oceans. Some of the carbon dioxide we emit gets absorbed in sea water, where it turns into carbonic acid in a phenomenon called ocean acidification. As our emissions rise, the oceans will turn more and more acidic, irreparably altering aquatic ecosystems.
Ocean acidification might lack the rhetorical punch that “climate change” and “global warming” have. But as one new study shows, acidification could carry real economic and cultural risks, and we’re only beginning to understand them. Waters off the United States are home to countless oysters, clams, scallops and other shellfish that the seafood industry catches and grows for your dinner. In many of these regions — especially off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico — acidification could harm these creatures enough to deal big blows to local economies and meals, researchers reported Monday in Nature Climate Change.
As humans throw off the delicate water chemistry that shelled seafood species, such as oysters, scallops and clams, are accustomed to, it’ll become harder for them to survive because they’ll struggle to build or maintain their shells.
Still, the oceans are huge, and their conditions vary. So, as is the case with climate change, it’s not easy to forecast, and thus prepare for, acidification’s impacts on the regional level.
That’s why Julia K. Ekstrom of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a number of other researchers from academia and nonprofits decided to study how well U.S. coastal areas are equipped to deal with acidification’s impact on shelled seafood. They divided waters off the United States into 23 “bioregions” — each one being an area with a certain set of characteristics, such as plants, animals and climate.
This photo, taken on July 12, 2012 in St. Joesph Bay, Fla., shows harvested scallops. (AP Photo/Melissa Nelson)
To assess how vulnerable these regions’ shelled seafood is to acidification, the researchers added the effects of a range of factors. First, they assessed the drivers of acidification and accounted for other effects that can worsen acidity locally. One example is that too many micro-organisms grow when humans pollute the water with nutrient-rich agricultural runoff; all these additional living things, digesting the nutrients and growing, end up releasing carbon dioxide into the water, boosting its acidity.
The researchers also assessed each region’s ability to respond with policy actions to soften acidification’s blow in the event that the seafood industry struggles, as well as each region’s sensitivity to acidification (how much the local economy and culture depend on shellfisheries).
Out of the 23 bioregions, the researchers found that 16 will face dangerous ocean acidification or at least one force that could amplify it. And most of these 16 regions — especially areas in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico — have economies and cultures that depend heavily on shellfisheries. Moreover, many don’t seem to have the right policies, scientific information or economic alternatives to adapt.
A lot of jobs and economic activity are on the line. In the Pacific Northwest alone, acidification is already believed to have cost the seafood industry at least $110 million and affected at least 3,000 jobs. Oysters there are dying in droves as the waters turn more acidic.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has also noted that oyster-harvesting industries in Maryland and Virginia have lost $4 billion in the last three decades thanks to pollution and agricultural runoff, which can worsen acidification’s effects.
The more this happens, the more growers and shellfish farmers will go out of business, and the more costly it could someday become to enjoy your favorite seafood dinner. We also still don’t understand the value of other services that oysters, clams, scallops and other shellfish might provide, such as water filtration and coastal protection against storm surge; add in those factors, and even more is at stake.
But some areas, such as the Pacific Northwest and Maine, may not be as hard-hit; they seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to preparing, the researchers suggest. For example, Washington state convened a blue ribbon panel on the issue, and Maine last year created its own commission to study how acidification could impact commercially harvested aquatic species. Interestingly, in these areas, the waters’ acidity is expected to worsen sooner than in the other areas, the researchers say, because relatively chilly waters are better at absorbing carbon dioxide. Maybe the imminence of the problem has helped motivate stakeholders to move quickly to prepare.
To get better-prepared, we still need more science on ocean acidification’s impacts — this study was actually the first to look at acidification’s regional impacts in the United States. Ocean acidification has sort of swum under the public radar, and perhaps that’s a reason that research on acidification, particularly on its impacts, hasn’t gotten much attention. The researchers note that just $270,000 in U.S. funding went toward social science research on acidification in 2011 — just 0.1 percent of all acidification-related spending in that year’s budget.
In sum, there’s yet another burgeoning consequence of society’s carbon habit — and pretty soon, it may affect your seafood habit, too.
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Very informative video. Thanks for that. I wonder if not already done they cant GMO shellfish to withstand that possibly with an apple or something. I am sure they are working on it. Lots of clams out there but lately oysters have been sucking big time. Might be the "headlamp mobs" though.
OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
402 pages long, but since this report was done the population growth was huge and so will be the effects.
Yup, man cutting corners.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/167879.pdf
Yup, man cutting corners.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/167879.pdf
Whole in the Water
Well-Known Member
So what are you saying by posting this huge document? What is your point you are trying to make?
If I had to guess, WitW - I'd have to guess it was some soft-peddle by OBD that pollution is somehow to blame - rather than climate change and pH - for shellfish issues in all the Straits. The "man cutting corners" quote.
Admittedly, feacal coliform contamination is ALSO an issue in some areas - but that affects the SAFETY of shellfish eating by humans - not necessarily the same issues around the carbon carbonate/pH issue.
Confusing the issues - as usual.
We have also learned much more in the past 20 years or better since the data was collected for this report.
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GLG
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the blast from the past OBD.
Did you read on pages 102,103,104,105,111,112 on climate change?
Did they have pH on their radar? no they didn't but as I pointed out and elsewhere in this document they did have climate change and it's effect in there sites back in 1994.
If your point is that we should not use the environment as our sewer then we agree. Nothing good can come from that.
Pity we don't have anymore science past 2012 on the state of the ocean here in Canada. Guess being a "Fossil Fuel Super Power" is more important then clean water, food and air.
Here is what we know about pH right now.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/coe-cde/soto/report-rapport-2012/index-eng.asp#a2
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