Shellfish farming and ocean acidification are discussed by farmer Bill Dewey and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bill Dewey is a shellfish farmer in Puget Sound in Washington state. Dewey works on environmental, human health, aquaculture and regulatory policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.
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| Hey everybody, today we're going to talk about ocean acidification. | |
| Bill Dewey has worked as a shellfish farmer in Washington State for over 40 years. | |
| He is the Director of Public Affairs for Taylor Shellfish Farms, the largest producer of farmed oysters, clams, and mussels in the United States, and he has owned and operated his own shellfish farm in Washington's Salmish Bay for 25 years. | |
| He served on Washington State's ocean acidification blue ribbon panel in 2011. | |
| And it currently serves on the Washington Marine Resource Advisory Council, advising Washington's governor and legislature on the state's response to ocean acidification. | |
| Bill, thank you so much for joining us. | |
| I've wanted to talk to people about this issue for a long time. | |
| When I was at Waterkeeper, we had a lot of our water keepers were also in the Commercial fishing industry, including shellfish industry, and I started hearing about ocean acidification almost 20 years ago. | |
| It's a subject that most Americans probably know very little about. | |
| So can you talk about it? | |
| First of all, tell us what that background is. | |
| Is that one of your farms up at Bellingham? | |
| Yeah, that's one of our oyster farms. | |
| That's called Long Line Culture, where you're clustered oysters up on line, suspended up off the bottom, and it adds up near the town of City of Bellingham, northern Puget Sound. | |
| Yeah, and I had a lawsuit that kept me in Bellingham for a long time against the Navy, against the shipyard there. | |
| I was representing some of the tribes whose salmon fisheries were being degraded and impacted by toxic discharges from the naval shipyard. | |
| Well, I'm very grateful to you, sir, for all of your environmental work. | |
| We've definitely, as a company and as an industry, benefited from the keepers. | |
| All around the country, particularly here in the Northwest. | |
| I think we share a common acquaintance from the industry there in Long Island, a good friend of ours from years ago, Terry Backer. | |
| A very, very, very close friend of mine. | |
| Unfortunately, he died about, I think, about seven years ago. | |
| It's been a while ago. | |
| But he was very close to me. | |
| And in fact, my kids worked for him for, you know, one of his commercial fishing companies, the Talmadge Brothers. | |
| The Talmadge Brothers, yeah. | |
| They're good friends as well, yeah. | |
| So my kids worked on the oyster boats and worked out of Norwalk, Connecticut. | |
| I have other, my son Connor also worked on oyster boats and skate and shark and tuna boats out of Chatham, Massachusetts and New Bedford. | |
| Well, I'm a New England boy at heart. | |
| I came out here to go to the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington back in the 70s, but I grew up, spent my summers out in Chatham and Hartwich and That's where I got my passion for marine life and wanting to get into fisheries. | |
| But Terry was a good friend of myself and Bill Taylor. | |
| We worked with him on national public health issues through the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference and he often referenced the work that he did with you. | |
| Yeah, and we started a bunch of river keepers and coast keepers down in Mexico, and he actually brought a lot of the shellfish technology down to the Baja. | |
| I didn't realize that. | |
| Cool. | |
| So anyway, tell us about ocean acidification. | |
| Sure, yeah. | |
| Well, ocean acidification is sometimes referred to as the evil twin of climate change. | |
| You know, it's a problem that's caused by the same... | |
| Carbon dioxide pollution. | |
| And when carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater, there's this chemical reaction that takes place. | |
| And it forms carbonic acid, which lowers the pH of the seawater. | |
| But more significantly, for shellfish growers, that chemical reaction reduces the number of carbonate ions that are in the water. | |
| And that's what our shellfish build their shells with. | |
| And so they struggle to build their shells. | |
| And for us, it really came to light. | |
| Back in around 2007, 2008, when the oyster larvae, the planktonic stages of oysters, in our hatchery were dying. | |
| Didn't understand why. | |
| And things started to come into focus. | |
| We had a seed crisis here on the West Coast because the production in our hatchery was collapsing and another major West Coast hatchery on the Oregon coast, their oyster larvae production was collapsing at the same time. | |
| And then natural recruitment, there's areas where the oystermen would collect seed in the wild from natural reproduction, and those were failing as well. | |
| So we had an oyster seed crisis here on the West Coast where farmers didn't have any seed. | |
| And with the help of NOAA scientists and university scientists, the story started to come into focus for us as to what exactly was causing the larvae to die. | |
| Just to summarize that, the larvae to build the shell need to mobilize calcium out of the water column. | |
| So they take calcium molecules out of the water column, and when it's acidic, the calcium, they can't retrieve it from the water column. | |
| Yeah, there's less of it there. | |
| So the oyster larvae, After that, the sperm penetrates the egg. | |
| In the first 24 hours of life, they've got to do two things. | |
| They've got to build a shell to protect themselves and a little swimming and feeding organ that's called a vellum. | |
| And they do that with energy that's stored within the egg. | |
| And if there's not enough calcium carbonate in the water, they struggle to build that shell. | |
| And the shell comes out small and deformed, and they use up all that natal energy stored in the egg before they build the feeding organ, and then they die. | |
| So it's that early life stage, in particular with oysters, but also with other species, it's typically that very early life stage that's most vulnerable to ocean acidification. | |
| And so tell us the good news first. | |
| Because I can see there's a lot of oysters behind you, so clearly you've found a solution. | |
| Yeah, we've figured it out on the seed production side. | |
| So again, with the help of some very talented scientists, There's a scientist, Burke Hales, at Oregon State University that developed a sophisticated piece of equipment that we have in our hatcheries now that will monitor carbonate chemistry real time. | |
| And then in response to that monitoring equipment, we're able to inject sodium carbonate into the water, boost the carbonate ions up in the hatchery to where our babies can build their shells again. | |
| So we've got the workaround, the temporary workaround on the oyster seed production. | |
| We're back in business. | |
| The industry has baby oysters again for their farms. | |
| But we're really concerned because as the conditions get worse, which the scientists have assured us that's going to be the case, that's going to start to impact animals out on our farms and in our nurseries and so on. | |
| You know, it was back in 2008. | |
| Dr. | |
| Richard Feely, who's one of the leading scientists in the world on ocean acidification, we're fortunate that he works for NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, is based here in Seattle. | |
| And he came to our conference and was actually the keynote speaker at our annual Shellfish Growers Conference and delivered this message that I think this is maybe what's killing your baby oysters, which led to the research that I was just describing. | |
| But the most sobering part of his message, frankly, was He said, even if you can convince the rest of the world to stop burning fossil fuels today, the conditions for you are going to get worse for the next 30 to 50 years because of the carbon dioxide that's in the pipeline coming your way. | |
| The water that's upwelling on our coast now that's causing this problem for our oysters, the last time it was at the surface of the ocean absorbed Off the spigot, the CO2 spigot, what's in that pipeline in those deep ocean currents is going to continue to make conditions worse for us the next 30 to 50 years. | |
| So we've got to, you know, on our farms, we're trying to get focused on adaptation, ways that we can mitigate these conditions that are continuing to get worse. | |
| So we're looking for means such as the photograph you see behind me. | |
| You can see the oysters are growing in this lush eelgrass beds in between. | |
| This particular bay has abundant eelgrass. | |
| It's got some of the most eelgrass of any of the bays in Puget Sound. | |
| Well that eelgrass is naturally improving that carbonate chemistry as it photosynthesizes. | |
| It sucks up that CO2 and improves the water chemistry naturally. | |
| So there may be bays like Samish Bay or others that have abundant macroalgae or eelgrass that will naturally mitigate that carbonate chemistry to where our shellfish can grow. | |
| Or we're looking at, you know, the potential of co-culturing seaweed with our oysters. | |
| So there's a lot of interest in recent years in growing seaweed here in the United States. | |
| And there in the Northeast, in particular, there's farms that are doing that. | |
| They're growing seaweed with their oysters in hopes that maybe it can mitigate the impacts of the carbon dioxide pollution and ocean acidification down the road. | |
| And is the problem confined to the Pacific Northwest, or are we seeing it everywhere? | |
| Well, you know, we were the first area where it really impacted an industry, and we knew it. | |
| We are a natural upwelling system with the California current on the West Coast of the United States. | |
| And what the NOAA scientists tell us is that Even pre-industrial era, pre-CO2 pollution, from that natural upwelling, we would see conditions approximately 11% of the time that would be corrosive enough that it would have dissolved our oyster larvae. | |
| Now they're happening a third, 33% of the time, and those events are more severe when they happen. | |
| And so there's other regions of the world that have these similar upwelling conditions that are experiencing similar problems But then if you look, there's another means of causing localized ocean acidification, and that's from nutrient pollution. | |
| And that's more typically the case in the East Coast estuaries, Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, and so on, where you can get too much nitrogen, and that causes phytoplankton, the marine algae, to bloom. | |
| And then when that algae dies and crashes and decomposes, that releases CO2. And can cause a localized acidification problem. | |
| So it's a problem in more areas than just the West Coast of the United States. | |
| Yeah, I mean, ironically, we have a project on the Hudson River called the Million Oyster Project. | |
| We're actually using oysters to clean up on nutrient pollution. | |
| But I guess you hit a tipping point where it gets so bad that it kills us bad. | |
| Again, the scientists that have brought this to our attention, research that's been done around the world, says that we've already increased the acidity of the surface waters of the ocean by 30%. | |
| And decrease the availability of carbonate ions by 16%. | |
| And by the end of the century, they're predicting that we will increase the acidity by 100% to 150% and reduce the carbonate ions by 50%. | |
| And that's across the surface waters of all the world's oceans. | |
| The conditions we see now when we have upwelling on the West Coast here are similar to what's going to be experienced at the end of the century. | |
| So it's kind of a window, you know, that 50% carbonate ion reduction and that more intense acidification is what we experience now. | |
| So it's sort of a window. | |
| What's happening to us is sort of a window to the rest of the world of what you can expect by the end of the century if we don't stop our dependence on the fossil fuels. | |
| And just so people know, there's a danger point for the oyster when they're in that larval stage before they form the shell. | |
| Once they form a shell of a certain size, then they're okay. | |
| Is that... | |
| Yeah, it's a great question. | |
| And that is the case. | |
| So when they're in that larval stage, they're using a form of calcium carbonate that dissolves particularly readily. | |
| And then once they metamorphose and begin their life on the bottom attached, It's not so vulnerable to dissolving. | |
| So they're hardier. | |
| But eventually, as conditions get worse, those life stages will be impacted as well. | |
| And what is this doing to wild stock of oysters on the West Coast? | |
| Another great question. | |
| So the oyster that we farm dominantly on the West Coast is actually an introduced species from Japan. | |
| It was introduced here in the early 1900s. | |
| And the native oyster, we still farm with it today, but it's a much smaller species. | |
| It is less vulnerable. | |
| It may be a species that we end up having to go back to because it seems to be better adapted. | |
| It's not as impacted as the Pacific oyster is. | |
| And it could be that since the oyster that we farm the most was imported here from Japan where they don't have those upwelling conditions, it maybe hasn't evolved like the native oyster has to deal with those changing You know, because we have that natural upwelling here, these species that live here have adapted to those increased levels of carbon dioxide in the water. | |
| You talked about the pH becoming more acidic now, 30%, and the future by 100%, 150%. | |
| That's not just going to affect oysters, right? | |
| There's an entire class of zooplankton upon which the entire global food chain relies. | |
| Yeah, exactly. | |
| That also mobilizes calcium out of the water column and requires that for their survival. | |
| And do we have any information or projections what's happening to that zooplankton? | |
| Yeah, that's a really important point. | |
| You know, just here in Puget Sound in Washington State, they estimate A third of the species here are calcifiers that depend on that calcium carbonate to build their skeleton. | |
| And so part of the work of this Marine Resources Advisory Council that I serve on now that advises the governor and legislature on ocean acidification, part of that effort is focusing on trying to identify what other resources are being impacted. | |
| When the legislature formed this Marine Resources Advisory Council, they also appropriated funds to establish the Ocean Acidification Center at the University of Washington. | |
| So scientists there are doing the research to understand what other species are being impacted. | |
| And it turns out Dungeness crab, which is another really valuable commercial resource here on the West Coast, the larval stages of the Dungeness crab are also being impacted as well. | |
| And more significantly, perhaps, The impact to the oysters, one of the bellwether species that identified it was being impacted were what are called pteropods, which is a zooplankton, a planktonic snail that has a shell as well, but it's a swimming snail. | |
| It's a microscopic zooplankton that turns out to be the primary food source for pink salmon and other salmon species. | |
| So, again, at the base of the food web, you know, pteropods don't have a spokesman like the oyster industry to, you know, Raise the flag and say, help, help. | |
| The pteropods are out there providing a wonderful service that most people don't understand. | |
| It's the base of the food chain. | |
| Are we seeing that in the salmon populations? | |
| Well, our salmon populations are definitely struggling here in the Pacific Northwest for a whole host of reasons, not just the pteropods and the food source. | |
| So it's really hard to tease out exactly what any one year is causing a decline in a particular salmon population. | |
| Yeah, and are there any reasons for optimism or hope? | |
| Well, I mean, as a company and as an industry, we've faced a lot of adversity over the years. | |
| The Taylor family that I work for here, they've been growing shellfish in Puget Sound since 1890. | |
| And over the years, we've seen lots of struggles and issues. | |
| And, you know, you have to stay optimistic to work through them. | |
| And so we try to be the same here on this issue. | |
| But, you know, it's Definitely a challenge when you know the source of the problem is carbon dioxide pollution and that's an international worldwide issue. | |
| You know, it was interesting when Governor Gregoire, our governor at the time this seed crisis hit, she formed this ocean acidification blue ribbon panel of experts to try to figure out what was causing the problem and what we might do as a state and come up with a response and From that came a report with 42 recommendations, which are actively being implemented. | |
| But, you know, the governor was challenged, you know, what can little old Washington State possibly do to fix ocean acidification when carbon dioxide pollution is a worldwide issue? | |
| And her response was, we can lead. | |
| And she has indeed. | |
| She did with that panel and with that report. | |
| That report that we generated has become a model for states all around the country and actually other countries all around the world. | |
| You know, her vision of leading on the issue has been realized. | |
| Is there any better food than shellfish? | |
| Well, I don't think there is. | |
| When it comes to vitamins and nutrients, you know, if it was the last thing left on Earth to eat, you would survive just fine. | |
| It's a wonderfully nutritious food. | |
| Well, Bill Dewey, thank you very much. | |
| That was very informative, and I know our listeners got a lot out of hearing your side of the story. | |
| What can people do to learn more or to support the development of solutions? | |
| Yeah. | |
| Well, there actually is a non-profit group, and so the Shellfish Growers Climate Coalition was formed with the help of the Nature Conservancy to try to help us share our stories about how the industry's Thank |