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Ocean acidification threatens U.S. fisheries

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Human-generated carbon emissions are making the ocean more acidic, which has become a cause for concern to the fishing industry and scientists.

The sea today is 30 percent more acidic than preindustrial levels, which is already creating corrosive water that is washing over America’s coasts. This ongoing decline in pH is making it harder for some animals, like tiny pteropods as well as corals, to form their shells out of calcium carbonate, while other creatures whose blood chemistry is altered become disoriented and lose their ability to evade predators. Tricia Thibodeau/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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READ: Corrosive waters threaten U.S. fisheries

In the past five years the fact that human-generated carbon emissions are making the ocean more acidic has become an urgent cause of concern to the fishing industry and scientists.

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