New Massachusetts Commission Created To Study Ocean Acidificaton

MARSTONS MILLS — David Ryan and Al Suprenant have a lot invested in their business.

The co-owners of Cape Cod Oyster Co. in Marstons Mills have eight full-time employees working 54 acres of ocean bottom on three sites; a 4,000-square-foot processing plant, two truck drivers, two bookkeepers, a fleet of refrigerated box trucks and five 28-foot vessels.

It takes careful planning, and a steady supply and demand for their product to keep it all rolling. They dread the reversals of fortune nature can dole out, such as occurred during a sudden onslaught of ocean acidification in the Pacific Northwest a decade ago that caused a 70 percent to 80 percent die-off of oyster larvae in Washington state hatcheries. One-quarter of the carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean, forming an acid that inhibits shell building, particularly in larvae. Since the beginning of the industrial era 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the ocean, 22 million tons per day, according to a Smithsonian report.

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