April 23, 2026 — The waters off the Pacific Northwest are becoming more acidic at a faster rate than the rest of the world’s oceans, a global problem exacerbated by the region’s unique geography, according to a University of Washington study.
Researchers found the California Current System, which runs along the West Coast from British Columbia to Baja California, and the Salish Sea, which includes Puget Sound, have experienced amplified acidification over the past 130 years, outpacing the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
“We are already naturally acidic and then we see this bump and then we’re saying that extra bit is increasing faster than we expected,” said Alex Gagnon, an associate professor of oceanography at UW and principal investigator on the study.
The Pacific Northwest is naturally prone to acidic ocean conditions because of a process called upwelling, in which cold, nutrient-rich water is pulled up from the deep ocean to the surface.