Monday, December 10, 2007
Fertilizing the Sea
An Australian-based company, the Ocean Nourishment Corporation has seemingly come up with the answer to the decreasing fish population. They have plans to “fertilize” the sea, hoping to bring 5,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide down to the ocean floor every year. The OCN states that if this endeavor is successful, the increased population will turn into 50 grams of protein for a certain number of people every day.
A few other companies are planning to do some ocean fertilizing as well. The idea, ocean fertilization, starts with phytoplankton absorbing the carbon from the ocean. This will also absorb the gas from the atmosphere. Since phytoplankton are the bottom of the food-chain, if they are well-fed, other fish will be well-fed, thus increasing the population.
While this is a noble thing to try to do, I’m not sure if it will be successful, and its obviously a very difficult thing to do. Logically, it makes sense, since the phytoplankton plants feed on CO2. But we’ll see what goes down.
World Magazine, December 1
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