Turning on the Lights. Simply put, the power to tackle ocean acidification (OA) hinges on making sure “the lights are on.” Credible scientific monitoring reveals the damage from ocean acidification. It gives seafood producers the power to stand up for themselves and the oceans that feed billions worldwide.

That’s why investment in research and monitoring is indispensable. What can you do?

• Speak up for science on ocean acidification. Federal and state governments provide crucial funding for science to detect, adapt to, and combat acidification. Your voice counts.
• Sign up for our newsletter and join our Facebook page. We’ll keep you posted on opportunities to make a difference.
• Contribute directly to Global Ocean Health. Your gift supports our path-breaking work to illuminate impacts of acidification, sustain productive fisheries, and reduce pollution. When it comes to tackling ocean acidification, our track record is unmatched.

Recognize the Power of Story: If your livelihood depends on healthy and productive seas—if you catch, grow or sell seafood—then your story may be your strongest card.

•  Tell Your Story Well. Your personal connection to the resource gives you what politicians and judges call “standing,” a stake in the ocean’s health. We can help with training, inspiring models, and opportunities to put your story to work.

Find your Leverage Point. There are levers within reach for nearly anyone. Here are a few of the options:

•  Reduce emissions, save money. Reducing carbon emissions from tailpipes and smokestacks tackles the main cause of acidification. However small, your actions to reduce your fuel consumption do count—for your wallet as well as the ocean.
•  Encourage sound energy policy. Your city, county, state, and nation have potential to convert whole regions and economic sectors into powerful models of energy efficiency, clean energy development, and ocean-friendly, low-carbon economic growth.
•  Prevent pollution. Reducing nitrogen-laden wastes—manure, sewage, and fertilizer —curtails pollution that aggravates acidification and hypoxia in estuaries, the nurseries for much of the world’s seafood.
•  Let nature help. Prevention is best, but well-chosen plantings in drainage areas can soak up acidifying wastes, helping to protect healthy waters. For example, poplars and willows are commonly used to remediate excessive nitrogen loads.
•  Restore shellfish. Rebuilding populations of filter-feeding shellfish can clean up coastal waters while helping to regenerate the naturally buffering seabed of shell material that helps vulnerable young clams, oysters, and mussels to survive acidified conditions.
• Restore estuaries. Saltmarsh, native eelgrass beds, and mangroves rank among nature’s most potent engines of carbon sequestration. They can absorb and bury carbon at rates that far outstrip forests. If you live on the coast, you can join local restoration and stewardship groups to get involved.

Resources for learning about OA—including its causes, consequences, and options for response—are provided on this website. The most comprehensive effort to define strategies for combatting OA to date is documented in the several reports to and by the Washington Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification (see Print Resources).