{"id":182090,"date":"2023-09-22T19:51:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T23:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=182090"},"modified":"2023-09-22T19:58:52","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T23:58:52","slug":"marine-heatwaves-a-threat-to-b-c-s-shellfish-industry-says-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/marine-heatwaves-a-threat-to-b-c-s-shellfish-industry-says-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine heatwaves a threat to B.C.\u2019s shellfish industry says expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer was hot, not only for us, but also for the life in our oceans as marine heatwaves swamped B.C\u2019s coastal waters. According to researchers, sea temperatures off northeastern Vancouver Island reached 21 degrees Celsius in July, boiling kelp alive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the first week of August the average global sea surface temperature reached a record-breaking 30 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n

Studies have found oceans have absorbed around 90 per cent<\/a> of the heat from global warming.<\/p>\n

Marine heatwaves may mean warmer swimming, but the warmer temperatures are a threat to B.C.\u2019s $20 million shellfish industry with bacteria causing increased die offs.<\/p>\n

Dr. Timothy Green is the Canada Research Chair in Shellfish Health and Genomics at Vancouver Island University (VIU) and an expert on how the shellfish industry is adapting to the increased frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves.<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s research focuses on the impacts of disease on farmed shellfish who started seeing a correlation between the outbreak of herpes in oysters, which he assures people is not the same as the one humans can get, and record breaking ocean temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to see a recurring pattern that disease outbreaks were often occurring when we were having these atmospheric or marine heat waves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He moved to Vancouver Island in 2018 and is the research director for VIU\u2019s Deep Bay Marine Field Station<\/a> where his primary research is to try and breed a strain of shellfish that is more resistant to ocean acidification, another effect of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived about five years ago, most farmers were experiencing about half to four out of every five oysters dying before harvest,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is a phenomenal number. To think 80 per cent of farmed shellfish die out just before they are ready to harvest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green says that marine heatwaves are a major contributor to more shellfish dying off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look back in the 1970s, and 60s, a marine heatwave was really quite a rare event,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were lucky to have one every couple of years. The difference is now we're having about eight of these events every year in our local waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Green\u2019s research focuses on shellfish, he\u2019s also seeing fish change their behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI'm an avid fly fisherman. Every morning, I get up at 4:30 a.m. I drive to the beach and I fly fish for salmon and this year, the salmon are just not behaving as they normally would,\u201d he said. They're not coming close to shore because all the black rocks are heating up during the day and the water\u2019s too warm, it doesn't carry enough oxygen and so they're staying away in the deep, cold water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green says that the impact of marine heatwaves is going to mean that shellfish farming could become more concentrated in large companies as smaller producers struggle to survive economically.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those bigger companies have the funds to weather the storms,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd some of these smaller producers are going to just realize it's easier to exit the industry and make a living doing something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green says that while we are seeing the impact of climate change in our oceans, it\u2019s not too late for people to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy real big fear is that we're just creating this environment that's going to become dead and completely change,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I really hope people take climate change seriously and try to help where they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to CHLY\u2019s story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer was hot, not only for us, but also for the life in our oceans as marine heatwaves swamped B.C\u2019s coastal waters. According to researchers, sea temperatures off northeastern Vancouver Island reached 21 degrees Celsius in July, boiling kelp alive. In the first week of August the average global sea surface temperature reached a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":182092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,222],"tags":[30688,8237,373,4886,5954],"radio":[240],"origine":[280,265,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182090"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182098,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182090\/revisions\/182098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182090"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=182090"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=182090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}