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Climate change will mean way less sushi — and way more jellyfish - Quartz


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Fish don’t like it hot

Since fish are lousy at adapting to hotter water, they simply move to where it’s cooler. This, says the IPCC report, will hurt commercial fishing in a big way. Fishing populations in the equatorial areas disappear, pushing more fish and marine invertebrates toward the poles. That means fishing fleets will have to travel farther, driving up costs. And some species won’t survive these strange new habitats.

This could lead to fighting over fishing grounds.  I think all seas/grounds are already claimed.  Maybe that adds another reason for the Arctic Ocean claims? 

Definitely adds another reason for the Arctic Ocean claims.

I really think the next generation is going to have a huge mess on its hands.

This is bad and seems pretty irreversible.

Seas of acid

Fish might be crummy at adapting, but they’re a lot better than corals—the seafloor invertebrates that secrete the stony skeletons that form reefs. It’s hard for an entire garden of exoskeletons to up and move when it gets too hot. The heat will kill a lot of those corals.

Climate change will mean way less sushi and way more jellyfish Quartz

But the other big problem is the oceans’ acidity. As the oceans absorb more of the growing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the CO2 will turn the water more acidic almost everywhere on the globe. That makes it hard for corals to grow, as well as for crustaceans—e.g. crabs, shrimp, lobsters—and mollusks to form shells, which are crucial for defending themselves from predators and disease. And since intricate marine food webs center around coral reefs, commercial fishing stocks will take a hit too as reefs decay.

It's an interconnected ecosystem. If the corals and the crustaceans dwindle in population, so goes the rest of the ecosystem. Yikes!

Some friends of mine in NY are the founders of "Oyster week" and they put on some really great events. This year, they are going to raise a lot of money and awareness for the "Billion Oyster Project" which is focussed on collecting shell to repopulated ecologically healthy oyster reefs to the region. 

Repopulate the region of New York, or a bigger region than that?

Each region that they come into contact with. I am working on creating some awareness with some folks in the Gulf of Mexico. 

PLEASE SUPPORT NEW YORK HARBOR SCHOOL & BILLION OYSTER PROJECT and join us at New York Harbor Ball on April 30th at NY Yacht Club. NYC is a maritime city. 4 or 5 boroughs are, or are on Islands. Manhattan Island. Staten Island. Queens & Brooklyn are on Long Island. When you are surrounded by water it pays to take care of it, right? http://www.nyharborball.com/

It definitely pays to take care of it. Is this crisis all over the eastern seaboard or just in New York?

All over, including Chesapeake Bay, and (horrifyingly) in the Pacific Northewest.  

5. Small changes in the environment can cause large responses among living organisms.While most marine organisms can tolerate a range of environmental conditions, at some point their tolerance fails. For example, fish die when dissolved oxygen reaches critically low levels, and intertidal organisms can die on hot sunny days when temperatures reach critically high levels. Thus, even small changes in the environment can cause an abrupt biological response when the limits of tolerance are approached or passed. This general rule holds for exposure to low pH and Ωaragonite. For example, the shells of free-swimming pteropods begin to dissolve when the aragonite saturation state is ~1.0[xl].  For Pacific oysters growing in the Pacific Northwest, the negative impacts begin when Ωaragonite drops below 2.0, with net larval growth occurring only when Ωaragonite > 1.7[xli]. With respect to low pH and aragonite saturation state, the events that drive the observed negative biological effects[xlii] are happening now in waters of the Pacific Northwest and are significantly exacerbated by anthropogenic CO2.  These events will become more frequent and increasingly harmful to shell-forming organisms as levels of CO2 in the environment grow.

Small changes in the environment can cause an abrupt biological response when the limits of tolerance are approached or passed.

http://coenv.washington.edu/research/major-initiatives/ocean-acidification/ocean-acidification-in-the-pacific-northwest/

"Small changes in the environment can cause an abrupt biological response."  <--- Butterfly Wings

Jellyfish is not very tasty IMO!

Nor mine, but some people consider jellyfish a delicacy.

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