Newly Established Ocean Acidification Task Force Holds First Meeting

(Click to enlarge image) A pteropod, a type of free-swimming planktonic mollusc that forms a calcium carbonate shell made of aragonite. Their shells dissolve when the pH level of seawater is too acidic. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The newly-created Ocean Acidification Task Force, stood up by the Ocean Research Advisory Panel (ORAP) in March, met this week at Ocean Leadership to discuss national ocean acidification priorities, analyze federal plans, and begin to formulate recommendations for ORAP to deliver to the federal agencies.

The content of the draft recommendations will be presented for ORAP approval at the 27-28 July meeting in Seward, AK. While the recommendations cannot be made public until they receive ORAP approval, it is expected that they will be supportive of the well-informed statements contained within the National Research Council’s (NRC) recently-released report, entitled “Ocean Acidification: A National Strategy to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Ocean.” A pre-publication version of the NRC report can be found here.