How Climate Change Is Changing The Oyster Business

Scientists blame higher levels of carbon dioxide in Pacific Ocean waters caused by global warming for the failure of oyster seeds to thrive in hatcheries.

[LessHypeMoreFact]

While a major issue to oyster farmers, I think the mega-drought on land is the bigger problem.

It mimics prior 'mega-droughts' but is likely triggered (and partly caused) by AGW's effects on Pacific currents.

Also affected are salmon runs even up in BC where the fingerlings can find nothing to fatten up on when they emerge from the rivers.

http://tinyurl.com/d7722yh

The global effects are global. And we are NOT immune or even ready for them.

[Northie]

Oysters are merely the oceanic version of the canary in the coal mine; the first creature to fall as the environment turns toxic.

Believe it or not, Washington State oyster growers are now raising their spawn in Hawaii's less acidic waters, or in tanks.

[LessHypeMoreFact]

Northie wrote:

Oysters are merely the oceanic version of the canary in the coal mine; the first creature to fall as the environment turns toxic.
Believe it or not, Washington State oyster growers are now raising their spawn in Hawaii's less acidic waters, or in tanks.

Coral reefs are the canary. But salmon survival and oyster spawn are indications it has gone beyond the canary..

[Earthling-1]

Coral reefs aren't alone:
"Glaciers a canary in the coal mine of global warming"
"Alaska used to be the global warming canary in the coal mine"
"Australia: Global Warming's Canary in the Coal Mine"

The 'coral canary' isn't suffering from Glowbull warming, as yet:
Bonaire: the last healthy coral reef in the Caribbean
Over the past 30 years, the Caribbean’s corals have been decimated by overfishing, disease and pollution. Last Summer’s heat spell raises the question: can the remaining corals survive global warming?
http://www.theecologist.org/investigations/na...

[SpaceBlues]

Other climate-change impacts:

“Freezing levels are rising in elevation, with rain occurring more frequently instead of snow at mid-elevations of western mountains. Spring maximum snowpack is decreasing, snowmelt occurs earlier, and the spring runoff that supplies over two-thirds of western U.S. streamflow is reduced. Evidence for warming is also observed in seasonal changes across many areas, including earlier springs, longer frost-free periods, longer growing seasons, and shifts in natural habitats and in migratory patterns of birds and insects.”

[SpaceBlues]

The ocean surface temperature can be 5 or 6 degrees warmer without ice. Because there’s no ice to block solar radiation, the layer of warmer water extends deeper and that affects circulation patterns and slows the growth of ice during the winter. Changes in the ocean surface temperatures can also have profound effect on the atmosphere and changes in the temperature, humidity and cloud cover can in turn affect how fast sea ice melts or grows.