Fishermen seek ways to stay afloat as oceans warm up and destroy marine life

Fishermen fishing in deep sea all night looking for big fish. Photo: Courtesy)

When nearly all the young oysters died two years in a row at shellfish farms in the US Pacific Northwest, workers at first suspected a virus. But the real culprit was a new worry—a change in the acidity of the sea water was feeding the oyster tanks.

As the world’s oceans absorb carbon dioxide that is building up in the atmosphere, seas have become 30 per cent more acidic than they were before the industrial era, said Carol Turley, a senior scientist at Britain’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory.