Some information on cement and oceans

Some information about the affects of cement on oceans & climate

One of the beaches on Lasqueti positively identified as containing forage fish is off of False Bay. China Cloud bay is one of our beach gems because it provides the type of beach sought by forage fish, contains abundant shell fish, and has warm shallow water and sandy beaches for swimming. This bay does offer a place for children to learn to swim, and for people to get together and have fun. However, pouring cement into the ocean to create a human-made pool would likely add to habitat loss and toxicity to fish.

These fish form the backbone of the marine food web in the Salish Sea, feeding on plankton and being eaten in turn by predatory fish, birds and mammals… the species we have been studying here on Lasqueti are Surf smelt and Pacific sand lance. Both species are drawn to our undisturbed, coarse sand and gravel shores. With magnetic attraction, they return here every year from the beginning of November through to the end of March to spawn, leaving their embryos buried in the surface sand and gravel just below the high tide mark.” (Haist, LINC’s Spring 2017 newsletter) Here are the maps that show the forage fish confirmed and suitable beaches on Lasqueti for forage fish spawning:
Suitable Beaches for Forage Fish
Confirmed forage fish beaches on Lasqueti 
Overview of Suitable Beaches for forage fish with 8 pages of details (by Ramona DeGraf)
 

“Abiotic depletion, global warming, acidification and marine ecotoxicity are the four identified impacts” of cement. (Journal of Cleaner Production Volume 18, Issue 5, March 2010, Pages 478-485

Raw concrete was poured into a culvert pipe in a Creek near Vancouver killing fish within 24 hrs. “All strengths of cement tested (100 mg'L -lor higher), when mixed with Wakefield Creek or Vancouver City dechlorinated tap water, killed fish and caused an appreciable elevation of the pH of these waters~ “ (p ii)  http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/263027.pdf

“Cement production is the third ranking producer of anthropogenic (man-made) CO2 in the world after transport and energy generation.  Making cement results in high levels of CO2 output4 - 5% of the worldwide total of CO2 emissions is caused by cement production. (The environmental-impacts-of-concrete, Greenspec, UK, 2017)

http://www.greenspec.co.uk/building-design/environmental-impacts-of-concrete/

Acidification of the oceans:

“Ocean acidification is a prolonged reduction in seawater pH driven primarily by increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) absorbed by the ocean from the atmosphere. This CO2 reacts with sea water to form carbonic acid, which increases seawater acidity and decreases the amount of calcium carbonate available to shell-forming organisms. The principal cause at the global scale is CO2 emissions from human activities. The oceans have absorbed approximately 25 percent of the CO2 generated by human activities since the start of the industrial age in the mid-1700s. Ocean acidification has increased 30 percent in that time. This rate of change is nearly ten times faster than any time in the past 50 million years. Ocean acidity is projected to increase by 100-150 percent by the year 2100, given the current rate of CO2 emissions. (Dept. of Ecology, Ocean Acidification in Washington State) https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/publications/1201017.pdf

 

 

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