Ocean acidification makes fish ‘anxious’: study

A new study found that the acidification of seawater accelerates the corrosion of coral reefs and shellfish, which in turn makes fish “anxious,” a U.S. media outlet reported on Tuesday.

According to the Atlantic, UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Canada’s MacEwan University recently published an article about habitat preference of juvenile rockfish in the acid water in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science.

A group of rockfish, when put in a water tank with elevated acidity, opted to stay in the dark corners of the tank.

Both the rockfish test and a previous study which injected anxiety-inducing drugs into fish showed that the subjects preferred the shaded areas. The implication is that putting fish in acidic water might be similar to the act of injecting an anxiety-inducing drug.

“This would have negative implications due to reduced time foraging for food, or alterations in dispersal behavior, among others,” study co-author Martin Tresguerres said.

By Sung Jin-woo, Intern reporter
(jinwoo0120@heraldcorp.com)