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A lobster fisherman came across this extremely rare yellow lobster in his lobster trap recently. How rare? One in 30 million! It's not that it is part of a dwindling obscure species; lobsters can have occasional color variations that are caused by an unpredictable genetic mutation. There have also been blue and even white lobsters (the white lobster is the rarest of all: 1 in 100 million).
Although caught, this yellow lobster did not end up as dinner. The fisherman has donated it to the local lobster fishermen association for display in an aquarium.
To view an AP video of the lobster (and some of the other color variants), click on the image above.
A new term that more and more of the general public is hearing about is ocean acidification - the process whereby the pH level of the oceans is lowered, making it more acidic. This effect is a byproduct of global CO2 emissions and has been documented as having a negative effect on many forms of shellfish and other creatures that depend on the use of calcium carbonate in their development (calcium carbonate is broken down in the acidification process).
Much has been written about how ocean acidification will impact coral reefs, as calcium carbonate is a major component of the supporting skeleton of reef-building corals. But tropical waters are not the only locales affected. The Seattle Times recently reported on the effects of ocean acidification on Pacific oysters fields both in the wild and in commercial oyster farms.
The deep waters off the northwest shores of Oregon and Washington are much more highly acidic than the ongoing average (even with the "average" becoming more acidic, these waters 
are still higher than shallower waters). For commercial oyster farms who pull in seawater to help raise oyster larvae, as long as the winds blow in the right direction, they appear to be relatively free from harm.
But winds can blow in ways that move surface water and draw in water from below - an upwelling as it is called. And this can spell trouble for the oysters, especially those living in the wild. The lowering of the pH (raising the acidic level) impacts the growth of new larvae, baby oysters, and even the reproductive cycles of adult oysters. Pacific oysters have not reproduced in the waters off Washington state's coast in six seasons.
"Nobody had thought about those upwelling events," said NOAA oceanographer Richard Feely. "They didn't predict any impacts along the coast until we observed them."
But oysters and other shell fish are not the only creatures potentially affected by corrosive, acidic waters. Changing the ocean's pH can have impacts on an animal's behavior and even the ocean's acoustical properties.
The Seattle Times listed these additional disturbing facts as a result of acidification:
- The metabolism of squid can change, making them more lethargic - perhaps affecting their hunting ability and susceptibility to predation.
- Acidic waters affect the way young fish larvae seek out prey and can actually be drawn to predators. An Australian researcher discovered that clownfish and some damselfish larvae get confused in corrosive water and seek out the smell of rock cod - one of their own predators.
- Water with a lower pH has a different density, and so acidification changes the acoustical properties of seawater, essentially making it a noisier place. This could impact whales and dolphins that rely on their underwater sonar or echolocation for hunting.
But what concerns researchers the most in the Pacific Northwest is the fundamentals. "What I'm most worried about is the bottom of the food chain, things such as plankton and other small sea creatures," said John Guinotte, a marine biogeographer with the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Washington. "We've got some of the lowest pH levels found anywhere, but we don't have any idea what the biological impacts are."
Through our actions, we are pushing the oceans into a brave new world, one in which it may adapt but not without serious consequences to a wide range of animal species, including mankind.
Read the Seattle Times article.
With many environmental issues, real quantifiable progress is often attained when scientists and commercial interests can sit down and objectively discuss the situation. SeaWeb.org, through 
its Seafood Choices Alliance, realizes this and has been taking steps to get what can seem like disparate interests to sit down at the same table to discuss the reality of ocean acidification.
Ocean acidification is when the oceans become more acidic from the absorption of increased CO2 in the atmosphere. This increase in the water's acidity levels impacts a variety of corals, shellfish, and other animals that rely on the use of calcium in building shells or other supporting structures - a process that is severely weakened by the more acidic water.
SeaWeb has conducted two workshop meetings - one in Portland, Oregon and another recently held in St. Petersburg, Florida - between scientists and commercial fishing leaders to discuss what the latest data says about the current and future status of ocean acidification, and what it means not only for the marine species but for the commercial fishermen and aquaculture companies.
"It is good for various and even opposing stakeholders of a public resource to sit down and talk. At least we can understand the investment each of us has in our finite fisheries and oceans," said Bobby Aylesworth, chairman of the Board of the Southeastern Fisheries Association, about the workshops. "Hopefully we find some common ground to grow from."
According to SeaWeb, one of the ways that scientists hope to collaborate with the seafood industry is through the sharing of data. Ocean acidification is not something that anyone can hide from, so by sharing data drawn from water quality tests taken at hatcheries and nurseries, combined with ongoing scientific studies by local scientists; all interested parties can have a better idea as to what changes are taking place within their own particular region of commercial concern.
There is already documented evidence of the impact of ocean acidification on sealife, so it behooves commercial industry to work with scientists - rather than to oppose or worse yet, buy-off scientists - to get an accurate picture of the issue. Nothing grabs the attention of policy and decision makers regarding an environmental threat than when a commercial enterprise is put at risk. When may be thought of as a bit esoteric suddenly becomes very real.
Read about SeaWeb in Action.
When I first began scuba diving over 25 years ago, my enthusiasm for the sport took me in all directions - photography, teaching, wreck diving, hunting, you name it. As I learned more about the health of the oceans, I soon abandoned hunting and have focused on the visuals, following the adage of "shoot only pictures, leave only bubbles, take only memories."
But back in my hunting days, abalone, a large shellfish found along the California coast and adjacent Channel Islands, was highly sought after. In fact, back then a diver could reach the State-allowed limit for a multi-day dive trip (a total of 8) in just one dive. The dive boat would anchor at one of the prime spots where you could find large abalone strewn across the bottom like hubcaps!
Then times changed. Already impacted by commercial harvesting, recreational harvesting was limited even further. The dive boats would often avoid the good spots, which were becoming harder to find anyway. And eventually a full moratorium was put in place.
There are several species of abalone - black, red, pink, white, green (their names based on either a basic shell color or the color of the short tentacles and fleshy mantle that extend from underneath) and each species today faces various degrees of decline, although all have suffered badly over the years.
The black abalone has declined as much as 99% since the early 1970s. Historically, abalone was harvested by the Chumash Indians that inhabited the California coast and Channel Islands. 
With the onslaught of the otter fur trade (otters also fed on abalone), the population of black abalone swelled. But, in response, so did the commercial harvesting industry. With abalone populations in decline, their overall health and robustness impacted, they have experienced a near fatal blow with the outbreak in the '80s of a bacterial disease called Withering Syndrome which attacks the digestive enzymes and the abalone begins to basically wither away.
The black abalone has been placed on the IUCN Red List as critically endangered. In 1999, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) began considering the black abalone for endangered status but, with considerable prodding from outside conservation groups, it took nearly 10 years for the black abalone to be officially designated as an endangered species.
While such a designation legally requires that measures be taken to protect the species, to date no critical habitat has been set aside for the black abalone. And this has spurred the Center for Biological Diversity to file an intent to sue.
“Critical habitat protections have a proven track record helping endangered species to survive,” said Catherine Kilduff, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Species with critical habitat are twice as likely to be recovering as species that don’t have it. Black abalone is on the cusp of extinction, and any further delay of federal habitat protection may well seal the species’ fate.”
The black abalone is in a precarious position: it's numbers reduced by over-harvesting; hammered by a pernicious Withering Syndrome; with increasing ocean temperatures that will aid the spread of the disease and the potential of ocean acidification to weaken the health of early-stage juveniles. The NMFS needs to act quickly and the world must recognize that another "canary in the coal mine" species is living on the edge due to the effects of climate change and CO2 emissions.
Read press release from the Center of Biological Diversity.
I was reading about two seemingly disparate animals: sharks and shellfish. And I came to realize there was a common thread to the life-threatening situations these animals are facing.
A recent report in the Norwegian scientific journal, Oikos, analyzed the impact on changes in seal predation behavior if the shark populations that preyed on the seals declined ("Do shark declines create fear-released systems?"). Pretty heady stuff, but through the researchers' computer models it was theorized that there could be major shifts in diets from shallower prey like herring to deeper water prey like pollock - where local sharks frequent, when the decline in shark populations has removed an element of fear that dictates a good measure of the seal's hunting behavior. Bottom line was that a decline in shark populations could produce a more significant change in the predator-prey hierarchy relationship than previously thought.
With shellfish, scientists are seeing an impact of warmer waters on various species that is producing population declines from deadly bacteria, among other factors. Oyster beds along the west coast of the U.S. are now seeing the effect (read recent article). The east coast has seen this effect, too. A platter full of shucked oysters may not be your cup of tea (it's not mine), but as filter feeders, shellfish play a critical role in maintaining water quality. When shellfish populations whither, bacteria and various types of algae explode and push out a wide range of sealife through water degradation and loss of habitat.
So, what's the connection? One is that both of these situations represent the domino effect that occurs within any complex marine eco-system. For every action, there is a reaction - sometimes a very severe or unexpected one. Another connection is that these are basically man-made problems - over-fishing and global warming - and will have an effect on commercial operations that involve these animals. So our actions come back to haunt us.
Certain marine issues can gain more traction and get more media attention or public sympathy and support. But in the end, we need to consider the overall complexity of this ecological jigsaw puzzle we call the oceans and give every issue its due.
