OCEAN
OF TROUBLE
WHEN SHELLED
ORGANISMS ARE AT
RISK, THE ENTIRE
FOOD WEB MAY
ALSO BE AT RISK.”
tion and forecasting of environmental
changes and their effects on biodiversity,
coastal ecosystems and climate.”
In April, the Obama administration
released a roadmap for implementing
the president’s own 2010 ocean policy
plan, which is nominally aimed at improving the resilience of the nation’s
ocean economy. “Science is the foundation upon which sound management of
ocean and coastal resources is based,”
John P. Holdren, director of the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chair of the National
Ocean Council, said in a statement announcing the implementation plan. “The
president’s National Ocean Policy and
the new implementation plan will help
advance relevant science and its application to decision-making to strengthen
the economies of our coastal regions
while increasing their resilience and
sustaining their resources.”
But for all this brewing activity, such
endeavors remain both embryonic and,
given the scope of the problem and the
austere economic posture of lawmakers,
cash-starved.
HUFFINGTON
06.23.13
Consider, for example, rising ocean
acidification, a direct result of oceans
absorbing excessive carbon dioxide pollution. As pH levels in marine waters
drop, so too does the ability of so-called
calcifying creatures — assorted corals,
clams, oysters, sea urchins and some varieties of plankton — to develop. And as
the Carbon Group at NOAA’s own Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboratory notes:
“When shelled organisms are at risk, the
entire food web may also be at risk.” The
sentiments echo those of the National
Research Council, whose 2010 “national
strategy” for addressing ocean acidification concluded that the ocean’s chemistry is changing at a pace that “exceeds
any known to have occurred for at least
the past hundreds of thousands of years.”
Coral reefs alone support a wide array
of fish species and other ocean life, act
as a buffer against shoreline storms and
waves and floods, and are increasingly
providing clues to new medicines for a
variety of human ailments, from cancer and arthritis to heart disease. And
yet, given the ever upward trajectory of
atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, scientists in December suggested
that virtually every coral reef might be
dead or dying by the end of this century.
Given the dire outlook, many stakeholders argue that far too little is being done.
One study, prepared in 2012 by the
National Marine Sanctuary Foundation,
noted that federal funding for research
and monitoring of ocean acidification
averaged about $29 million annually