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Sep 13, 2016
Cod is threatened by ocean acidification
Increasing ocean acidification can double the mortality rate of newly hatched cod larvae. Now German scientists, in collaboration with Nofima, are sounding the alarm.
– Various scenarios show that recruitment of cod stocks in the Barents Sea and Baltic Sea in the year 2100 may decline to between one quarter and one-twelfth of what has been the level in recent decades, due to increased concentrations of CO2. There should be a strong call for action by the fisheries authorities, the German research network BIOACID confirms.
The increase in CO2 emissions impacts the oceans in two ways: Higher temperatures and a lower pH, in other words more ocean acidification. To some extent, fish can avoid the temperature problem by moving closer to the poles, but ocean acidification is not linked to geography and the fish cannot avoid it by swimming away. Read the article.