The world’s oceans are becoming more acidic and, like climate change, it’s happening at a faster rate in the far north waters of Alaska.
A workshop in Anchorage on Nov. 30 aims to bring together scientists and stakeholders to better understand the threat ocean acidification poses to the state. A live stream of the workshop will be available beginning at 8 am AKST on Nov. 30.
Not only are the world’s oceans about 30 percent more acidic today they were 300 years ago, the rate at which they’re acidifying is faster than at any other time on record.
Chris Whitehead is the environmental program manager for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The Tribe has been testing toxins in shellfish for years, but soon it will start testing the waters for levels of acidity. Whitehead says ocean acidification poses a particular threat to marine animals at the bottom of the food chain.
“Like if you’re a little tiny clam or a terapod, which are these little tiny plankton that form really delicate shells, your shell can’t form,” says Whitehead.
That’s because the more acidic ocean water is, the more corrosive it is. That worries people like Hannah Heimbuch. She’s planning on attending the ocean acidification workshop.
“A lot of my questions are around the food web and predator-prey dynamics,” says Heimbuch.
Heimbuch lives in Homer, where she fishes commercially.
“There are so many unanswered questions about how [ocean acidification] will affect the ecology of the marine environment. As a salmon fisherman, I would like to know how it will affect what the fish I catch and eat,” says Heimbuch.
Along with catching fish, Heimbuch also works for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council as a community fisheries organizer. She’s been focused recently on ocean acidification, trying to inform people about the effects it may have on Alaska’s waters.
“One of the ways that we have been doing that is by working with the Alaska Ocean Observing System, AOOS, on the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network,” says Heimbuch.
It’s that network that organized the workshop on the “State of the Science” of ocean acidification. There will be remarks from researchers and policymakers, panel discussions with scientists from around the state and presentations on lessons learned from the Pacific Northwest.
The workshop is free online and will stream directly to some of the state’s major fishing communities like Unalaska, Kodiak, and Sitka. Hannah Heimbuch says, for them, ocean acidification poses a direct threat to their local economies.
“I think that folks that are based in coastal Alaska understand that we need to take that long term view and really try to better understand these big-picture changes happening out in the ocean,” says Heimbuch.
At the current rate of ocean acidification, it won’t be long before those changes will be felt on shore, says Heimbuch.
A live stream of the Ocean Acidification State of the Science Workshop will be available online here.