Future Proofing The Shellfish Industry

Shellfish farming is hard work, and growers depend on Mother Nature to feed and nurture our crops. Growers work at the mercy of tides, storms, predators and changing water quality. Around the nation thousands of people in rural coastal areas make their living growing oysters, clams and mussels. Thousands more harvest wild shellfish. Shellfish are the financial backbone for many coastal communities, adding to the tax base and providing family-wage jobs. U.S.-produced clams, mussels and oysters play an important role in our national heritage and nutrition.

But shellfish growers face a new and fast-growing challenge: ocean acidification. Carbon dioxide dissolves readily into the ocean, turning the water corrosive to shell-forming animals. It doesn't matter whether the carbon dioxide comes from fossil fuel emissions, deep-water upwelling or fertilizer runoff, it all combines to make it harder for shellfish to form a shell. Tiny shellfish larvae are most vulnerable during the first few days of their lives, and when conditions become too corrosive, the larvae cannot survive.

While West Coast oyster farms have been the hardest hit to date, sustaining millions of dollars in losses a few years ago from massive die-offs, a recent study in Nature Climate Change found that coastal communities in 15 states are at serious risk from ocean acidification. Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Maine, Florida, North Carolina, California, Louisiana, Maryland and Texas were identified as hot spots.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Pacific & East Coast Shellfish Growers Associations