Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Thursday, July 31st, 2014

Changing Sea Chemistry Will Hit Alaska Communities Hard

Author:     SANDI DOUGHTON
Source:     Seattle Times
Publication Date:     July 29, 2014 at 6:07 AM
Link: Changing Sea Chemistry Will Hit Alaska Communities Hard
Stephan:   I was just up cruising in these waters. When you are actually in the area, and you see Alaska towns like Sitka, Petersburgh, and Wrangell you realize how completely their economy is tied to seafood. And when you see the long stacks of steel shipping containers outside the processing plants, many with Japanese, European, and Chinese names on them, you realize how the fish, shrimp, and crabs that these local boats bring in are critical to the food supplies of countries around the world. All of this is at risk, as this report spells out. It is doubly tragic because the Alaska fisheries are the only sustainably operated ones in the world.

Oyster growers in the Pacific Northwest have already been stung by changes in ocean chemistry linked to greenhouse-gas emissions.

Now, a new study led by Seattle researchers finds communities in Southwest and Southeast Alaska that rely on the sea for food and jobs are also likely to be hit hard over the coming decades.

The analysis, published Tuesday in the journal Progress in Oceanography, is among the first to examine the potential social and economic impacts of ocean acidification – sometimes called global warming’s twin.

Just as carbon dioxide from power plants, factories and cars diffuses into the atmosphere, the gas is also absorbed by the world’s oceans. As a result, scientists say the average pH of seawater has become slightly lower, or more acidic, since the start of the industrial era.

That effect is expected to intensify in the future – and some places are more vulnerable than others.

The Alaskan waters that yield much of the U.S. commercial-seafood catch are near the top of that list, said lead author Jeremy Mathis, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab in Seattle.

Carbon dioxide dissolves more readily in cold water, and the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska are already naturally CO2-rich.

‘It […]

Read the Full Article