Ocean Acidification: How it Threatens Food Supplies

Ocean Acidification affects communities primarily on the Pacific coast, but is impeding on the Atlantic coast as well. Families and businesses that rely on harvesting shellfish are experiencing a significant income loss since acidification has become more and more of an issue. Shellfish including clams, oysters, crabs, and mussels, are having more trouble dealing with the harm caused by the increasing acidity of the ocean waters. Their shells are being dissolved from the high acidity; and  to add to that, shellfish cannot properly grow shells as strong as they used to. Many ocean dwelling organisms are finding difficulty in coping/adapting to a more acidic habitat. Acidification spells bad news for more than 1 billion people on the planet who rely on the ocean as a primary food source.

Humans are not the only ones feeling the loss of shellfish availability, many marine creatures also look to shellfish as a source of food, and when the number of shellfish decreases, the number of animals relying on them for food will be soon to follow.
Watch this video (courtesy of NOAA) for more insight: Ocean Acidification's impact on oysters and other shellfish