Do you like dolphins? Whales? Do you like marine life in general? Ocean acidification is affecting marine life right now and it is a big problem. 

Ocean acidification is when the ocean absorbs pollutants from carbon dioxide, fossil fuels, and CO2. ¹ The ocean absorbs around 30% of the carbon dioxide that we release into the environment. ² This is bad for the ocean for a lot of reasons. One reason is that fish can’t detect predators as easily in acidic waters, which can damage the ocean’s food web. Another reason has to do with carbonate ions. Carbonate ions are a critical piece of the structure of how corals grow. ³ Ocean acidification causes a decrease in carbonate ions and therefore without this essential piece, corals do not have as many places to grow. ⁴ It not only affects the corals, but sea urchins, oysters, and clams are also affected and don’t have as many places to grow, as well. ⁵ If the life around corals, sea urchins, fish and other small ocean life is being affected, then as you go up the food web, slowly dolphins, whales, and other larger sea life will be affected too. The more that we pollute, the more pollution the ocean absorbs into its waters. 

What is Causing this Problem? 

Pollution is the cause of ocean acidification. The whole problem of ocean acidification comes from when the ocean absorbs the pollution causing the waters to be acidic. There isn’t much else to say on why ocean acidification is a thing. It all starts from pollution.  

What Are We Able to do to Help?

Like I’ve been saying, ocean acidification starts from pollution. To stop ocean acidification, we need to stop polluting. It is hard to immediately stop driving our cars, trucks, or buses when we are going far distances. But things that we can do is biking somewhere that isn’t that far away. If you are going somewhere that is only 15 minutes or less from wherever you are, maybe try to bike there, or walk there, or scooter there. If there’s sunlight coming in through windows into your house, try not to turn the lights on. This will save electricity, prevent the use of fossil fuels, and save you money.  Planting trees will also reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, therefore preventing a little bit of CO2 from getting absorbed by the ocean. If we all do these things like not driving as much, saving electricity, and planting trees, the effects will be huge. Now the only thing left for us to do right now is to do these things.

Image: Ray Aucott, Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/s/photos/ocean-underwater

1.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html
2.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html
3. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html
4. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html
5. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html