California coastal waters are becoming more acidic and losing oxygen faster than coastal waters almost anywhere else in the world.

This increasingly puts the state’s marine ecosystems and $51bn ocean economy at risk.

New Ocean Data Portal Can Pinpoint Risk

Economic impacts from hypoxia and ocean acidification are multi-faceted and immediate. California waters face a multi-stressor world where acidification will compound the effects of rising temperatures and declining oxygen levels; both threaten ecosystem stability. Altered ocean chemistry will likely lead to cascading environmental and public health concerns.

To analyze and predict shifts, a new marine data analytics platform shows promise:

• Shellfish growers can improve crop survival by better timing outplanting of baby oysters to coincide with days of lower ocean acidity.
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• Commercial fishermen can better monitor Dungeness crab* populations (*2025 harvest resale value $56 million), which are increasingly fleeing due to the rise in oxygen-depleted habitats.

Blue Tech Innovation Data

The California Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) Portal pulls data from 20 million ocean observations to provide access to real-time, modeled and remotely-sensed conditions. Developed by Dr. Alex Harper and team at the Central & Northern California Ocean Observing System, use results for:

• business development
• app creation
• research and education

by ocean tech start ups, students, scientists, sailors, research teams and others.

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