February 5, 2014 — Lawmakers on Thursday unveiled four bills related to efforts to slow the acidification of Maine’s coastal waters, which threatens many of the species that make up Maine’s lucrative fishing industry.
Rep. Mick Devin, D-Newcastle and the most vocal voice in the fight against acidification, said the arithmetic is simple.
“Our marine economy is at stake here. The lobster fishery alone is worth $1 billion,” he said during a news conference Thursday. “No one comes to the Maine coast to eat a chicken sandwich. We lose our lobster, we lose our clams? We’ll lose tourism as well.”
The bills include a $3 million bond for increased monitoring of acidity-causing pollution along Maine’s coast, two measures to limit known contributors to acidification and a bill to establish a three-year effort to continue a concerted fight against acidification.
Devin led a commission on ocean acidification established by the Legislature last year. Central to its task was developing ways that Maine can try to limit the effects of ocean acidification. The commission released a 122-page report Thursday, outlining its findings and its vision for fighting acidity in Maine’s waters.
All told, the pH level in the Gulf of Maine is 30 percent more acidic than it was before the Industrial Revolution, according to the Rockland-based Island Institute. That acidity makes it hard for some marine species to develop their shells, making it much more challenging for them to survive.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News