Vessels Finding Widespread Acidity in Beaufort

Fri, November 27, 2009
Posted in Alaska News, Top Stories

Canadian and Japanese research vessels are finding widespread acidity in the Beaufort Sea, off the coast of Alaska and Canada. The waters are corrosive enough to dissolve the shells of marine organisms. Melting sea ice appears to be the main source of the acidity, but not the only one.

Steve Heimel, ARPN – Anchorage

Download Audio (MP3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Comments

Akcliff

Well if you take ICEBREAKER Back To do tests It's like when you break up one big chuck of ice it melts faster So come on people use you brains and stop wasting the tax payers money by adding to the trouble.
mikesparks

Well 30 years of construction surveying visits outdoors on the North Slope do count for a little bit of experience. Let's just say Sherry, that the black cloud covering the Prudhoe Bay area must be cosmic dust. Perhaps Sherry, you would elaborate for us.
paaj

it is too late for us to fix the earth considering the fact that we destroyed it during late 1980's, from burning garbage, carbon dioxide from any type of vehicles and all the other bad stuff. the melting of ice is caused by teared ozone and can not be reversed. all we can do is our best to lower the burning of bad stuff. really bad precidament we are in.
mikesparks

In 1974, the skies of the Prudhoe Bay area were clean, somewhere in the late eighties until now we have smog across the entire area led by the processing facilities black smoke spewing forth. What of all the pollution that tracks from China and others up over the Arctic Ocean? I'm sure the scientist already knew man's impact would eventually be felt. In the 70s the ice pack was 30 miles offshore, now it presses 300 miles at times. Who's got the real answers, and the solution to our Arctic problem?
zeljohn

i have worked on the north slope foe 12 years..and i have never seen black smoke billowing out of any where..some white clouds,but mostly water vapor.
sherryjennings

Hey Mikie, when was the last time you were at Prudhoe Bay? Guess what? It is still clean and clear! An alaskan who knows better!
cjnbb

acidic water, ice too thin to support polar bears, sea ice forming later and later each year........ the 'experts' say if we act NOW, we could change the future. i don't believe that. i believe we're already too late. the effects of the things we've done in the last decades (fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, waste) will continue to effect the globe for decades to come, if not longer. its now just a matter of time before the earth as we know it is changed irrevocably. if we want to salvage any part of it, we must act, decisively, NOW. countries around the globe have the know-how and technology to make this possible, but unfortunately, the people themselves don't want to take the steps to ensure a solid future for this planet. noone wants to be the one to say 'you need to be inconvienienced to do this', noone wants to say 'you have to do this' or 'you have to do that'. noone wants to, but someone should. world leaders hold the 'power' to accomplish this, not the average person. the average person can do only so much without the support of someone with influence, 'power'......... where are our 'world leaders'?
Pao

Please reserve judgment on the cause of acidic conditions in the Beaufort Sea until there is scientific research to back up allegations. Do not take the word of an uneducated hack that cannot spell "sulfur" or "diesel" and does not know when to use "an" instead of "a" or "too" instead of "to." There are high levels of carbon in sea-ice that was formed thousands of years ago and this may be a contributing factor as the short article advises. Any further conclusions should be based on research and fact, not the ramblings of a blogger.
BOB PHAIR

THIS IS, NO DOUBT, JUST ANOTHER GLOBAL WARMING MYTH INTENDED TO CREATE A POLITICAL CLIMATE DESIGNED TO FACILI9TATE THE SUBJECTION OF ALL ENTERPRISE TO GOVERNMENT. THE MINUSCULAR AMOUNT OF SULPHUR IN DIESEL FUEL WOULD CREATE SO SMALL A DIFFERENCE IN pH THAT IT COULDN'T BE MEASURED. LIKE ALL THESE 'SCARE MONGERINGS' IT WILL FADE AS IT IS DISCREDITED AND ANOTHER WILL BE COOKED UP TO REPLACE IT.
Calvin

Yep, and you are an idiot. You are just like all the rest of the "chicken little's" out there. Can't even entertain the thought that maybe this is a naturally occuring phenomonon. Ewww, run and hide, the world is coming to an end because mankind is burning fossil fuel in the arctic for what, maybe 70 years now. That is a mere blip on the screen as far as Earth's age is concerned. Mankind has not destroyed this planet. We are mere mortal's, we only have a few hundered years of experience on this planet. There is no way we can predict what will or will not happen in our future. Sure we can drill ice cores and see what things were like in the past, but in no way can we use that as a measure of what the Earth should be. Earth is a fluid entity, it is always changing and always will.
ackerman

The high ph acidity in the water is from tons of high sulpher fuel being burned from cruise ships and bigger freighters and fishing boats in or around alaska waters. what we are about to witness is a ecosystem about to be destroyed in our generation. sulpherdioxide one of the main gases in diesiel fuel combustion. just add rain from the sky and you have acid rain.it is to late the almighty dollar is the quest burn fuel to multiply the amount of money to be made.get the picture. you be the judge!
samfisher

Duh. You must have flunked geography. There is very little marine traffic in the Beaufort Sea. When you get on your soapbox make sure you are on more that melted sea ice and you have some clue about what you are opining.