IF YOU think dumping 100 tonnes of iron particles into the Pacific Ocean off the Galapagos Islands is an ill-advised solution to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, you’re not alone.
A scientific working group of the International Maritime Organization says it is concerned about “the potential for large-scale ocean iron fertilisation to have negative impacts on the marine environment and human health”. The statement follows the announcement by carbon-offsetting firm Planktos that it plans to dump the iron in order to trigger a plankton bloom – and sell carbon “offset” credits as a result.
“Planktos plans to dump iron in the ocean to trigger a plankton bloom – and sell carbon ‘offset’ credits as a result”
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Natural clouds of iron dust deposited on the sea surface can trigger huge phytoplankton blooms that can be seen from space. In the past 20 years, 10 ocean expeditions have attempted to trigger blooms by seeding the waves with iron, with a degree of success. Some believe this could be a solution to rising levels of atmospheric CO2 because a portion of the carbon sequestered by the bloom sinks to the sea floor when the plankton die, in effect transferring CO2 to the bottom of the ocean.
Many researchers believe too little is known about the potential knock-on effects of iron fertilisation on other organisms. They point out that phytoplankton are right at the bottom of the marine food chain and that any tampering with the amount of phytoplankton in the oceans may affect the entire marine ecosystem.
Victor Smetacek of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, agrees that little is known, which is why he would like to see more iron fertilisation experiments. “I am probably the only senior scientist who is advocating this, however,” he says. “The way I see it is the experiments should be run by scientists [rather than private companies].”
Smetacek has just received funding from the Indian government to carry out an iron fertilisation experiment in 2008 in the Scotia Sea, off the coast of Antarctica. In the long run, he says, any iron fertilisation activities should be carried out by a dedicated UN body.
Planktos says it will study the plankton bloom caused by its 100-tonne dump more extensively and for longer than has been done in the past, but the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) believes that Planktos’s planned activities are against the law.
“There is a law against dumping material into the ocean without permits. Yet this is exactly what Planktos plans on doing,” says George Kimbrell of CTA. “We are asking the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to launch an immediate and full investigation into Planktos’s ocean-dumping activities.”
When 91av contacted the EPA, it was told that Planktos has indicated to the agency that it will dump the iron particles from a ship registered outside the US, thereby avoiding any conflict with the US Ocean Dumping Act. “This is no longer within our jurisdiction,” an EPA official said.
Planktos chief executive Russ George says the quantities of iron his company is proposing to dump are well below quantities that require EPA approval, and that since they are using a natural product, the iron-rich rock haematite, a permit is not required. The US government said in a statement, however, that the proposal “should be evaluated carefully by any state that has appropriate jurisdiction over this activity”.
