Hawaii Island is poised to become a major player in the U.S. oyster industry, as growers on the mainland wrestle with the effects of climate change.
Around 2007, oyster hatcheries along the West Coast were significantly affected by a disturbing trend.
“Oyster larvae hatcheries were seeing large die-offs during the spring and summer,” said Dave Nisbet, owner of Goose Point Oysters of Washington state’s Willapa Bay. “Oceanographers were seeing increased acidification of the West Coast’s ocean water during the spring and summer months, and the pH shift was just enough to cause larvae to die.”
The immature larvae require a very specific pH level to be able to pull calcium from the water to build their shells, he said, and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans has begun to affect that process.
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