• Ocean acidification is the new climate scare and is being used as part of the “Climate Change” drive to force emissions legislation.

• Presentations to a Congressional hearing on “The Environmental and Economic Impacts of Ocean Acidification” claimed ocean acidification is “real” and that seawater is “corrosive” to shell fish larvae. This is a deliberate distortion; indeed it is a lie.

• IPCC AR4 WGI states that the mean pH of surface waters ranges between 7.9 and 8.3 in the open ocean, so the ocean remains alkaline. It is dishonest to present to a lay audience that any perceived reduction in alkalinity means the oceans are turning to acid.

• The oft-repeated claim that ocean “acidification” has increased by 30% since the Industrial Revolution is based on an average of a calculation, from an estimate of anthropogenic CO2 uptake by the oceans, from 1750 to 1994. It shows a decrease in alkalinity of 0.1pH unit, well within the range of current ocean pH quoted by IPCC AR4 WG1.

• Prominent scientists have claimed that high mortality rates in Oyster hatcheries operated in the North West Pacific, are due to “acid seawater” resulting from upwelling of the deep ocean. There is no acid seawater. As stated in AR4 WGI, the oceans are alkaline, not acid.

• Those same scientists stated that bacterial contamination of seawater was not to blame for the high oyster larvae mortality rates.

• Contrary to their false claims, the problem of early oyster mortality has been found to be directly caused by a faecal organism, Vibrio tubiashii. Research programs are currently underway to investigate the extent and resolution of the problem.

• This research is being conducted by the Pacific Shellfish Institute and was known at the time of the acid seawater claims.

• The fact that this was not considered or was even ignored, when the claims of “acid seas damage” were made, is at worst, mischievous and at best, very un-scientific.

The full paper can be read at: (http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/lies_shellfish_scam.html)

Additional studies on the topic can be found here:

CO2, Global Warming and Coral Reefs: Prospects for the Future

Effects of Ocean Acidification on Marine Ecosystems

Answers to a Fisherman's Testimony about Ocean Acidification

Acid Seas, Back to Basic

A New Propaganda Film by Natl. Resources Defense Council Fails the Acid Test of Real World Data

Calcification (Other Marine Organisms) – Summary

Contact:  Robert Ferguson, Science and Public Policy Institute

202-288-5699