The environmental integrity and sustainable productivity of the ocean, our coasts and coastal watersheds, and the Great Lakes play a central role in the well-being of all Americans. Every day, the marine environment supplies a multitude of products and services that enhance and support the lives and livelihoods of citizens. In 2011, Americans, on average, ate 15 pounds of fish and shellfish per person - 4.7 billion pounds all together - making the United States second in the world in total seafood consumption. Offshore oil production in Federal waters accounts for fully 24 percent of total...

Human industrial, transportation, and agricultural activities have caused global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) to increase from a pre-industrial average of 280 parts per million (ppm) to the current value of approximately 400 ppm (IPCC AR5 2013). Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are now higher than experienced on Earth for more than 800,000 years (Luthi et al. 2008), and the rate of CO2 release into the atmosphere is likely unprecedented in Earth history (Kump et al. 2009; Honisch et al. 2012). Ocean carbonate chemistry is a natural buffering system, but this buffering...