The West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel

The ability of marine organisms to grow, survive, and reproduce in the face of OAH is partly dependent on the number, intensity, and interactions of other, non-OAH stresses they encounter, such as physical disturbances to nearshore habitats, warming temperatures, toxic contaminants, biological invasion, and harvest. [...] West Coast managers should inventory the co-location of protected areas and areas genetic tolerances to vulnerable to OAH to assess the number of locations they presently have in the two categories. [...] West Coast managers should facilitate the establishment of a working group of scientists and managers from relevant sectors to engage in joint fact-finding about the potential risks, benefits, and costs of active genetic intervention, such as through the selection, manipulation, and/or translocation of genetic varieties as a strategy for enhancing the persistence of species in mariculture settings [...] OA research is still in its infancy, with 75% of all acidification science studies published in the last five years, and only a handful of studies to date that have addressed the combined effects of OA and hypoxia, or OA and temperature, or OA and any other stressor. [...] Thus, the West Coast can and should serve both as a harbinger of OA’s impacts worldwide and as a case science approach is study on how to develop a highly effective, region-specific science strategy for reducing the threat of OA on the West Coast and other regions of North America.