It takes the $hell off the fart-mi$ting global warming cultists:
"Rising acid levels in oceans imperil region’s shellfish; Changes from surge in carbon dioxide take toll" by David Abel, Globe Staff March 07, 2015
WALPOLE, Maine —Drastic changes in the chemistry of coastal waters, the result of increasing acidification, have been setting off alarms among fishermen, climate scientists, and policy makers from Cape Cod to Casco Bay.
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The problems stem from a surge of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuels that has made oceans on average 30 percent more acidic at the surface since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA scientists predict they will become 150 percent more acidic by 2100 — more than at any point in the past 20 million years....
Carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide, forget about the methane.
Btw, when you see its from NOAA you know it's pure spew and not true.
Studies have shown the additional acid makes it harder for clams, oysters, lobster, mussels, shrimp, scallops, and similar organisms to develop their shells, ultimately making them more vulnerable to prey and less likely to reproduce.
Really?
The concerns about ocean acidification led the Maine Legislature to release a landmark report in February that detailed the potential dangers to the state’s lobster-reliant economy and ways the state should respond. Lawmakers on Beacon Hill this year introduced a bill to establish a similar commission to study the impact of more acidic waters off Massachusetts.
“We’re talking about real, fundamental changes in the ocean,” said Mark Green, an oyster farmer and professor of oceanography at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine, who served on the state’s acidification commission. “If we don’t change what we’re doing on the planet, we’re going to be looking at an ocean a lot different than it is today — with a lot fewer organisms, perhaps filled with just seaweed and jellyfish.”
The oceans are becoming acidic at a rate 100 times faster than at any time in the past 55 million years, he said. Changes that previously took more than 10,000 years, he said, are now occurring over a period of several decades.
Oooooooooh!
Because more than 60 rivers flow into the Gulf of Maine and cold water circulates from the north, the threat to the region’s fisheries is “ground zero for ocean acidification,” he said.
“Evolution and adaptation takes time,” Green said. “Certain organisms won’t be able to keep up with the pace of change.”
Imagine if they thrive!
He cited a range of recent experiments that have shown how more-acidic water leads to higher mortality, depressed growth, pitted shells, and lower survivability of larvae.
The mortality rates of bay scallop larvae, for example, are 30 percent higher in today’s waters than in those of the 1950s, he said. Similar studies have shown that only 45 percent of hard clam larvae survive longer than five weeks in today’s oceans, down from 60 percent in the 1950s, he said. If the oceans become acidic at expected rates, only 25 percent of clam larvae are expected to survive by 2100.
In Casco Bay, mud flats that clammers had abandoned because of poor productivity were found to be more acidic than others that remain active, said Cathy Ramsdell, executive director of the Friends of Casco Bay in South Portland.
The group, which has tracked a steady increase in the acidity of their coastal waters, also performed tests of young clams in different mud flats in the area, finding greater erosion of shells in those that were more acidic.
“We were flabbergasted,” Ramsdell said. “This is a threat to our resources.”
At Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, researchers are studying the impact of more acidic water on lobster larvae and copepods, teardrop-shaped crustaceans that serve as a vital part of the oceanic food web. Last year, the lobster harvest generated more than $450 million in Maine and accounted for about 85 percent of all lobsters caught in the United States.
Their findings so far show a decline in respiration rates of the larvae and copepods in waters that simulate the chemistry of the oceans that scientists predict for the next century. Lower breathing rates could reduce their swimming speed, making it harder to catch prey and escape predators, said Jesica Waller, a University of Maine graduate student performing the research.
Except I was told that global warming was eliminating their predators and leading to record harvests.
Of course, within three months the lobster was under threat and within a year of that there were major concerns that need to be embraced. Sorry for shrimping down the shellsh**.
“That shows us some part of their physiology may be compromised, and that they may be experiencing internal stress,” she said.
A study in the journal Nature Climate Change last month found that coastal communities in 15 states, including Maine and Massachusetts, are likely to suffer economic consequences from ocean acidification. Over the past decade, the Pacific Northwest has seen a near-collapse of its shellfish industry — with tens of millions of dollars in losses — because of the increased acidification of its waters.
The report’s authors have urged vulnerable states to do more to assess their risks and to take action. They suggest that states reduce acid-promoting pollutants that filter into the ocean from land, diversify their fishing fleets, invest in aquaculture of high-value shellfish species, build detection systems for when waters become too corrosive, and cultivate oysters that are more resistant to acidification.
The message is beginning to resonate in Massachusetts, where Hauke Kite-Powell, a research specialist in the marine policy center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, briefed lawmakers on Beacon Hill last month about the state’s vulnerability to acidification.
“I explained how the science is convincing that the problems are going to get worse for several decades,” he said....
Look, no one is for pollution, but that is not what this agenda-pushing pollution is about.
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Thankfully there are holes in the cloud of fart mist enabling you to see the net (that account for some acidification, would it?).
Look what came up:
"China’s appetite for N.E. lobster boosts industry" by Jim Baumer, Globe Correspondent March 13, 2015
YORK, Maine — Somewhere in Shanghai, a Chinese family is delving into a Boston lobster — and paying as much as $100 for the sumptuous meal.
With a booming economy, the burgeoning middle class in China has developed a taste for the rich meat of the North Atlantic crustacean, known in the Far East as Boston lobster, even though many of them are pulled from the cold waters off of Maine and shipped overseas from Tom Adams’s loading dock in York.
China has imported some $40 million of the hard red shells, mostly from Maine and Massachusetts, and Adams’s company, Maine Coast Lobster, is booming since he decided to specialize in exporting Maine’s signature seafood.
He has increased sales to China and other foreign markets in each of the past two years and invested more than $2 million to expand operations here and create 25 jobs. He is now one of Maine’s largest seafood exporters.
Adams and Maine Coast are part of a New England industry that is riding a global wave of rising incomes and growing demand for luxury goods, particularly in China, with more than 600 million people clamoring for consumer goods and a taste of the good life.
I know I'm not buying lobster, and it's obvious for whom this pre$$ is written.
New England exports of lobsters to China — mostly from Maine and Massachusetts — have quadrupled since 2012, according to Wisertrade.org, a nonprofit research group that tracks international trade. China today accounts for 7.5 percent of the region’s lobster exports, up from 2.5 percent about two years ago.
Really? Despite the acidification of the catch, etc?
Even at $100 in restaurants, North Atlantic lobsters are much cheaper than their competitors, Australian lobsters, which can cost hundreds of dollars. The North Atlantic lobster has another advantage over its Australian cousins — meaty claws — and has have become particularly popular during the Chinese New Year.
At Intershell International Corp. in Gloucester, Yibing Rome and her 30 employees are taking a breather after a busy month in which they shipped more than 10,000 pounds of lobster to China during the New Year celebrations in Feburary.
Intershell began selling to China last year, and it’s become a booming business for the 23-year-old company, aided by the increase in nonstop flights to Asia from Logan International Airport. Logan last year launched direct service to Beijing and this year adds nonstop routes to Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Intershell ships about 100 cases, or 3,000 pounds of lobsters, a few times each month. Rome attributes the growing market to concerns about pollution in China and a belief by Chinese consumers that lobsters caught off the North American coast are safer and healthier to eat.
They obviously don't read the Boston Globe!
“They trust it when it comes from the United States and Canada,” said Rome. “They say, ‘I want a Boston lobster.’ ”
Fools!
In Maine, where lobster is not only a state icon but a $500 million industry, expanding exports has become critical.
Never you mind all those hungry Americans.
Record and near-record catches in recent years have glutted the market, driving wholesale prices well below $3 a pound and leaving lobstermen struggling to pay bills and loans — a lobster boat can cost $400,000 — and stay in business.
Really? Record catches in the midst of acidification and global warming. Wow.
Large catches are expected to continue, partly because of the state’s aggressive management of the fishery, partly because of the collapse of stocks of groundfish, such as cod, which preyed on young lobsters and larvae.
Oh, now we are back to the predator excuse.
In 2012, wholesale prices nearly touched $2 pound.
Jeff Donnell, who has been fishing out of York Harbor for nearly 40 years, said so many lobsters were on the market that he felt lucky to be able to sell his catch. He hoped his boat would make it through the season without needing repairs; replacing an engine can cost $100,000.
“When we’re bringing in a decent price for our catch,” Donnell said, “it allows me to make upgrades, maintain my equipment, put some money in my retirement account.”
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Related: Chinese Love Lobster
Do they know what is in it, or are they just used to eating sh** food?
