'Acidified' ocean waters found off California coast

For the first time, international scientists released findings May 22 of corrosive waters off the west coast of Northern America due to the ocean sucking in Carbon Dioxide (C02) from the heavy polluted atmosphere, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
During a field study from Canada to Mexico last summer, including California, this was the first time “acidified” ocean water has been found on the continental shelf of western North America, less than 20 miles off the west coast.
The term “ocean acidification” describes the process of ocean water becoming corrosive as a result of carbon dioxide being absorbed from the atmosphere.
While the absorption significantly reduces the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and decreasing the effects of global warming, the change in the ocean chemistry affects marine life, particularly organisms with calcium carbonate shells, such as corals, mussels, mollusks, and small creatures in the early stages of the food chain, according to Richard Feely, who wrote “Evidence for Upwelling of Corrosive ‘Acidified’ Water onto the Continental Shelf” along with Christopher Sabine, both oceanographers at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Wash.
The findings were published on the online journal Science Express. Their co-authors are J. Martin Hernandez-Ayon of the Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanologicas from the University of Baja California, Mexico; Debby Ianson of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Sidney, British Columbia, and Burke Hales, of Oregon State University College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Corvallis, Ore.
“Our findings represent the first evidence that a large section of the North American continental shelf is seasonally impacted by ocean acidification,” said Feely. “This means that ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on our continental shelf right now.”