Woods Hole Probes Lobster Response to 65,000-Litre Ocean Alkalinity Trial as US Funding Dries Up
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 20
Woods Hole Probes Lobster Response to 65,000-Litre Ocean Alkalinity Trial as US Funding Dries Up
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 20
Summary
Woods Hole scientists are analyzing two years of ocean alkalinity enhancement tests to see how lobsters respond, after shifting from plankton studies to a species worth just under $700 million in US landings in 2023.
65,000 litres of sodium hydroxide were released 40 miles offshore in the Gulf of Maine last summer, with boats, gliders and sensors tracking alkalinity and carbon uptake over four days.
Preliminary lab work has shown no higher lobster mortality or behavioral changes at low or high alkalinity, and researchers now plan RNA analysis to detect subtler physiological stress such as waste-secretion problems.
The work comes as the Gulf of Maine warms faster than 99% of the world's oceans and fishers report lobsters moving farther offshore, sharpening interest in whether carbon-removal methods can help without harming marine life.
US federal cuts have left LOC-NESS as a rare surviving ocean carbon-removal project, while Europe has put more than £8.5 million into related research even as scientists warn safe biological thresholds may take a decade to define.
As scientists race to engineer ocean chemistry, what hidden ecological dangers might this controversial carbon-absorbing experiment unleash on the fishing industry?
Could dumping thousands of liters of chemicals into the ocean actually save our warming seas, or will it destroy vulnerable marine life?