Ocean Acidification: An Unseen Threat to Marine Life

Our oceans are facing a serious complication that threatens the vast majority of marine organisms. However, even more serious is the fact that many people either do not acknowledge ocean acidification as an issue or are ignorant to it completely. For an unknown reason, the media has given very little coverage to ocean acidification even though it threatens the lives of over a billion people who rely on marine creatures for food.

Ocean acidification, like global warming, is a direct result of increased Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere. According to Rebecca Albright, approximately twenty-five percent of all CO2 emissions are absorbed by the ocean. Throughout time, the ocean has habitually absorbed some of the greenhouse gases

Many of the small bait fish that eat microbes or shelled organisms would lose sources of food and their numbers would decline rapidly. This would lead to less food for the larger marine creatures like tuna or cod — undoubtedly resulting in a decline in the already faltering fishing industry. Fish prices would increase as supply goes down. It is very clear that ocean acidification will have detrimental effects upon the fishing industry.

Personally, I have never been to an ocean to witness its beauty. It is in my deepest interests to maintain nature and leave the world a better place then when I was born. After college I plan on pursuing a career in Marine Biology, hopefully one day I will be able to help solve the issue of ocean acidification. The ocean was where all life originated and the fact that we put it in jeopardy is frightening. The future generations deserve a chance to see pristine life-filled waters, the Great Barrier Reef and the many other wonders that inhabit the

However, imagine if you drank so much pop that you became morbidly obese. The situation that the ocean is in is similar to this. It is becoming sick from all of the pollutants that we are producing and allowing it to absorb. Still others may say that the ocean’s CO2 levels are simply fluctuating as they have always done, yet the last time that the ocean became this acidic was near the beginning of the Permo-Triassic extinction event (Fabry). A piece of history that a sensible human would not want to