GreenWatch

B. McPherson Vancouver Island is surrounded by clean, cold water. The Pacific Ocean cradles the island moderating its climate and providing livelihoods for many in the fishing industry. One of the successful, modern fisheries is raising of scallops in the Georgia Strait in Qualicum Bay. Vancouver Island Scallops have developed a method for farming the delectable little morsels and until the past few years, been very successful at it. The scallops are started in the hatchery and when they have attached to lines are put in nets and placed in the ocean waters. Scallops are filter feeders so they get their food from plankton floating in the cold waters. It usually takes about three years before a scallop is ready for commercial harvesting. Scallops are called bivalves(two shells). The shells are made up of chalky material high in calcium carbonate. You know what a scallop shell looks like if you’ve ever seen the Shell Oil symbol. That’s it. Unfortunately for the scallops...

B. McPherson NOAA's Explanation of Our Changing Oceans Most of us are by now aware of the increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. We have been told of the Greenhouse Effect on the air we breathe. A less well known effect of the increasing carbon dioxide in the air is an increase in acidity in the world’s oceans. For most of the geological history of the Earth, slow change occurs with punctuations of extensive extinctions of life both on land and sea. Many natural phenomena can trigger a mass extinction.  Some scientists are concerned that humans may be about to inadvertently cause a collapse of systems in the oceans which will in turn, hit humanity like a tsunami. Since the Industrial Revolution there has been increasing dependence on the burning of fossil fuels – oil, coal, gas – to power the machines that have transformed our lives. One of the bad side effects of this is the release of carbon dioxide gas. This is a normal cog in the Carbon Cycle. The oc...