OCEAN ACIDIFICATION MONITORING
The mystery began in 2007 at Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon. An inexplicable oyster larvae die-off spurred efforts to figure out the problem. The identified culprit? Ocean acidification.
Ocean acidification is the lesser known cousin of climate change. Oregon researchers, and many others along the entire West Coast, have been at the forefront of pioneering acidification research. As part of a new effort to monitor coastal chemistry changes, pH sensors were recently installed at several of Oregon’s marine reserves under the oversight of Dr. Francis Chan and Dr. Kristen Milligan (Oregon State University, Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans). This research is being conducted in conjunction with marine reserve community groups and volunteers from Surfrider Foundation, Redfish Rocks Community Team and The Nature Conservancy in an effort to engage citizens in the monitoring.
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ODFW Marine Reserves Program scientists, Jessica Watson and Dr. Brittany Huntington, recently published their work on developing a cost effective video lander tool for estimating relative fish abundance. The article was published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. You can read the article here, and be sure to check out our earlier blog post about this study.
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