One of the blogs I follow regularly, Deep Sea News, recently posted an article about the resurrection of a geoengineering project called Planktos, founded by businessmen Russ George, which you can read here. His company became bankrupt a few years ago after severe pressure by environmentalists and scientists halted the main project of the business, plankton seeding.
   
    The idea was that phytoplankton, who use Iron naturally found in seawater for photosynthesis, would thrive on a massive dumping of iron fillings into the ocean and cause an algal bloom. This huge bloom would then fix the carbon dioxide in the oceans - boom, climate problem gone. He recently tested it off the coast of British Columbia, where it indeed caused a huge algal bloom (see this article and map from the Guardian). So in theory yes the artificial addition of iron worked in that an algal bloom occurred, although a bloom much larger would have to occur if a dent was to be made in carbon dioxide amounts in the ocean.  So what's the problem?

     Disregarding the UN's international treaty on geoengineering signed by 191 countries a few years ago, we simply do not know what the affects of such radical artificial geoengineering would be. The impact to benthic communities would be hit particularly hard as hypoxia spreads towards the bottom of the ocean as bacterial communities gorge themselves on the billions of dead phytoplankton floating down from the surface because of the rapid increase in phytoplankton population. Unused iron could alter benthic community dynamics, and it is not clear how well the carbon could be contained - in other words, whether the carbon will just cycle back into the form of carbon dioxide within a few years. At the surface, toxic waters (i.e. red tides) could spring up, harming fisheries. And finally, it is possible that this method could even worsen climate change.

    I am not passing judgement yet - I will be interested to see what the affects of the bloom will be on the local fisheries and benthic communities in the next few months to years. So while I do love reading Deep Sea News, I take issue with their current article as it preemptively condemns the 'experiment'. I am in no way justifying George's action, nor am I saying that sound science lays behind it, but I would rather wait for data (even if it is likely to prove the dump was a terrible idea) to come out before it is deemed a failure/crippling blow to the environment.

    Another reason I hesitate to immediately condemn the dumping is the simple lack of solutions. While I believe geoengineering to be the absolute last resort to the climate problem, there simply aren't a lot of companies out there who are in a position to help reduce greenhouse emissions as a primary goal. I think Planktos should have definitely undergone some serious smaller scale experiments are even drop geoengineering altogether - a company that is attempting to help preserve the climate and biodiversity (they have a reforestry project as well that I have not as of yet investigated) using a business model that attempts to make the environment profitable a boon. I know, I've scourged the internet for hours looking for jobs/internships in Marine Conservation - there simply aren't that many. I believe the only way we can fix the climate problem is to make being green (or blue if you prefer) profitable to the right companies while still providing the resources that people need (not want). So while I do not support geoengineering, I am saddened to see another company attempting to profit off of Conservation (in a good way!) go down.

    Investigate Planktos and George for yourself. I think you will agree that while the the events that model provided by George are far from the best, conservation driven businesses can be the thing to reduce climate emissions and preserve biodiversity.

    

My internship may have ended, but the show of marine awesomeness must go on!

The Ikka Carbonate Columns, Ikka Fjord, Greenland - the coolest underwater geological structures ever. They form from underwater seeps of Carbonate to form a mineral called Ikaite, which form these sweet pinnacles. But they are disappearing fast, most likely as a result of ocean acidification. The pinnacles are essentially dissolving as the surrounding ocean becomes more neutral, so withing a few decades these will be gone.

Put it in full screen, HD. The action starts around 2:00 if you are lazy.

Definitely on my list of top 5 places to dive.

Well two months have passed...I leave for Washington tomorrow bright 'n early. It has been an incredible experience to intern down here in Eleuthera seeing some amazing animals, beaches, and people. In the course of my internship I transferred one thousand juvenile Cobia from three tubs to a huge fish cage two miles offshore, gathered data on reef fish and invasive lionfish populations, logged exactly 50 dives to give me a grand total of 96 (four short of professional ranking), swam in some of the most absurdly blue water I have ever seen (better than any photo), eaten my share of delicious conch fritters and the special Eleutheran Mac 'N Cheese, spotted sharks and eagle rays, punched an over-inquisitive grouper and barracuda on the same dive, and met some amazing people.

   Things I am looking forwards to when I get back home:

• Air conditioning. I cannot stress this enough
• Junk food (BBQ, pizza, greek food, french fries...)
• getting ready for college
• seeing my family!
• many others...

Things I am not looking forwards to leaving:

• Almost daily dives
• a dorm that is about 10 feet from the ocean
• the water...
• amazingly friendly locals
•  Eleuthera in general...

It has been an incredible experience that I am glad to have taken a part in...I apologize for the infrequent blog updates, sometimes the daily ""grind" here seems not worth reporting, but looking back there is so much I could have written about. The blog will revert back to just a general blog about some of my thoughts on various marine topics...feel free to unsubscribe.

I look forwards to being back home!

HDR of boat and Conch shell midden

mangroves growing on a conch midden

Cassiopea Upside-Down Jellyfish

Just some more random pictures I've been taking

Also, a film crew from Sweden has just arrived to film a documentary on sharks, which our shark team here will be a part of. One of the most famous names in environmental photojournalism, Mattias Klum, will be joining them - I really hope I can talk with him! Check out his website: http://www.mattiasklum.com/home

I've been busy this past week taking care of some new critters in the wetlab - Rotifers.

Courtesy UBC - those spheres by the tail are eggs.

These guys are microscopic plankton that we are attempting to culture so we can feed baby Cobia and Mahi Mahi this fall. We have approximately 200 million of these guys in our tanks right now and we have to provide an estimate count of their numbers everyday, a very tiresome task.

Cooling down a car engine, Bahamian style

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Our rotifers waiting to be put in tubs

finally we got them through security

Our Rotifers were shipped from the University of Miami so we had to go to the Rock Sound Airport to engage in some bureaucratic labyrinths before we could take them back to our lab.











Also, this is my last week here - although I am excited to be going home it will really be quite sad to leave. I'm just trying to soak it all in at this point.

New blog I created with some of my favorite photos I've ever taken - not really Eleuthera related, just thought some people might be interested.

oceanusandtethys.tumblr.com

Great morning dive today, saw a huge spotted eagle ray that glided ten feet away from me and a couple of reef sharks. Also broke my depth record, from a previous 109 feet to 112 feet at the wall only a few hundred feet from the cage. It's really amazing there, the seafloor just drops into the deep blue.