Ocean acidity is becoming a major threat to crustaceus marine species This recent shift in the chemical balance of the ocean is sadly due to human populations way of life. The ocean is a natural filter of co2 in the atmosphere catching the co2 that falls on the water. Some of this is used in to complete photosynthesis in marine plants, and other organisms use the carbon as a building source to create calcium carbonate for shells. But since humans are adding way too much carbon to the ocean than it can handle the extra carbon is mixing with the water molecules to create carbonic acid that is raising the acidity of the ocean. So far the oceans ph has dropped by 0.1 on the ph scale which gives people a false idea of the severity because the ph scale is logarithmic so this change actually represents a thirty percent increase of acidity in the ocean.More acidity in the oceans makes it harder for animals to make their shells and can deteriorate them faster than they are made. Scientists can already observe the pteropods losing their shells in 45 days in exposure to our current acidic ocean levels this signals that with the further increase of acidity in the ocean crabs could start losing their shells putting species like the alaskan king crab at major risk this also means that commercial crab fishing like the alaskan king crab could shut down ending a 5 billion dollar industry and 100,000 jobs. But if these fisheries shut down not only will there be an economical hole but 17.55 of Alaska’s residents also rely on the fisheries to feed their families so a collapse could also leave many people hungry.
Ocean acidifications affect on key fisheries