Ocean acidification has been found to be a threat to Long Island’s shellfish population and its coastal health. A New York State task force is finalizing a report that has some solutions to the problem.
The ocean is now more acidic than ever because of human-caused carbon dioxide pollution. Ocean acidification could hurt reproduction for shellfish and other mollusks and harm Long Island’s coastal health.
Jason Masters, the Suffolk County representative on the New York State Ocean Acidification Task Force, says there needs to be a long-term and short-term solution to prevent the worst case scenario.
“If we don’t take a step, it continues to get worse. If it continues to get worse, then we actually have to either adapt to those global forces that will cause change, or we don’t, and we die.”
Masters says there are opportunities now to adapt to this change, and the science informs residents and decision makers to act.
Task force members say a solution could be to plant seagrass and install more modern waste treatment systems that could help slow down acidification and eventually reverse it.
