The Last Oyster Haul?

Thanks to greenhouse gas emissions, it's
looking like my days as a
commercial fisherman are numbered.

I've been working the sea on-and-off my whole life. At 15 years old I
quit high school to work the lobster boats out of Lynn, MA; later I
fished cod and crab boats on the Bering Sea. As over-fishing decimated
the cod stocks, I headed back home to Newfoundland to try my hand as a
fish farmer growing halibut and salmon.

Now I'm an oyster man, growing 100,000 organic oysters a year on a 40-acre plot in the Long Island Sound. I see myself as a new breed of
green fisherman, who have shifted from hunter-gatherers trolling the
seas in search of declining fish stocks, to ocean-based farmers,
sustainably growing shellfish on small plots of ocean acreage for local
markets. (Oysters rank as one of the top "super green seafoods" by the
Environmental Defense Fund.)

But now, just as I've regained my green sea legs, scientists tell me
that in the coming decades I won't be able to make a living growing
oysters anymore. They tell me greenhouse gas emissions from burning
fossil fuels are turning the oceans acidic, and oysters, already fickle
little creatures, are likely to be the first victims.

Here's how the marine biologists tell me the process works: Oceans
absorb about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases from human
activities. The problem is that too much CO2 absorption also raises
water's acidity. Increased acidity reduces carbonate -- the mineral used
to form the shells and skeletons of many shellfish and corals. The
effect is akin to osteoporosis, slowing growth and making shells weaker.
If pH levels drop enough, the shells will literally dissolve.

The acidification of the ocean today is larger and faster than
anything scientists can find in the fossil record over the past 65
million years. According to a recent study in the journal Natural Geoscience,
current ocean acidification is taking place at ten times the rate that
preceded the mass marine extinction 55 million years ago.

Oysters and other shellfish are expected to be some of the first
victims of ocean acidification. Researchers at Stony Brook University's
School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences found that even minor
increases in ocean acidity have significant, detrimental effects on the
growth, development and survival of hard clams, bay scallops and
oysters. Scientists already suspect that acidic water is responsible for
killing several billion oyster, clam and mussel larvae that were being
raised at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on the Oregon coast in
the summer of 2008.

But it's not just my oysters and livelihood that are imperiled.
Shellfish and other vulnerable species function as crucial links for
entire ecosystems in the ocean. According to the NRDC:

The new chemical composition of our oceans is expected
to harm a wide range of ocean life. The resulting disruption to the
ocean ecosystem could have a widespread ripple effect and further
deplete already struggling fisheries worldwide... A more acidic ocean
could wipe out species, disrupt the food web and impact fishing, tourism
and any other human endeavor that relies on the sea.

Commercial fishermen have conflicted hearts. We're famously
independent, often wary of government regulation. We have traditionally
had a complex, often combative relationship with the environmental
movement. But at the same time, we also have a deep respect and love for
the sea. Our lives, our livelihoods, are held at the mercy of natural
forces more than almost any other occupation.

Politicians try to cast workers as not caring about protecting ocean
resources and the perilous effects of greenhouse gases. They say the
coming crisis is too far off and we're more fearful about environmental
policy destroying jobs. Exactly the opposite. Protecting my life and
livelihood requires protecting the oceans and planet.