Planktos science ocean fishery stewardship
Planktos ocean stewardship for ocean fishing companies and countries offers the means to replenish and restore dwindling and lost fishery resources.
In the more than a decade of research we have conducted on understanding ocean ecology and developing ecorestoration technologies Planktos Science has amassed a collection of new technologies and resources. This at hand know how and the techniques can guide existing ocean fisheries into the 21st. Century, not merely as hunters and harvesters of wild stocks but rather as caring and successful stewards of the common ocean pastures. Though marriage of Planktos Science know how with existing fishing fleets the dwindling ocean fishery stocks can be rebuilt and sustained in a restored condition of abundance not seen for fifty years.
Interested ocean fisheries organizations, corporations, and fishermen wishing to become stewards and patrons of the ocean pastures are invited to initiate confidential communications with us to learn how to use our know how and technology to give back to the ocean some small part of what has been taken from it.
A Case For Planktos Science Ocean Ecorestoration and Fishery Stewardship
We develop and deliver potent and valuable ocean ecorestoration technologies that address the most important environmental issues on the planet - ocean productivity decline and acidification and global climate change. In fact the most serious issue facing the oceans is the impact of CO2 but not just for its role in global warming. More critically urgent is the role of CO2 in producing ocean acidification and massive productivity declines due to mineral nutrient deprivation.
Regardless
of what or who may be to blame for ocean decline our mission, for over
a decade and now as Planktos Science Inc., is to provide the cure. Our
proprietary technology and knowledge replenishes the vital mineral
micronutrients and restores ocean pastures to former levels of
productive health. Our methods are highly economical, practical, and
suited for immediate implementation and are especially well suited to
become part of existing ocean shipping and fishing fleet operations.
Regarding the fishing industry, simply stated, by the directed
ecorestoration we provide fishers they can grow more and bigger fish.
The work we do, and data we collect and process, also allows us to know
better where the fish are, hence it we can also assist in design and
planning of more efficient and sustainable harvests. All the while
together we will restore the ocean ecosystem and provide major
assistance in the global effort to slow climate change.
Tuna
Tuna stocks around the world are suffering a dramatic decline, both in overall population and individual fish size. The popular claim for the cause of this problem is too many boats, with too much technology, chasing fewer and fewer fish with imperfect rules and regulations in place to sustain fish populations. |  |
While these facts may be true in part, they neglect to address the fact that fishing pressure alone is not and cannot be the single important factor effecting these tuna populations. The equal, or perhaps even greater, source of the decline of tuna populations is the widespread collapse of ocean plant life, the plankton.
While plankton blooms are still a major feature of the ocean, such blooms are today less substantial, shorter lived, and result in greatly diminished net productivity. Ocean plankton productivity is reported to have been reduced by 17% in the North Atlantic, 26% in the North Pacific, and by as much as 50% or more in the sub-tropical tropical Oceans. The tiny plants that make up the phyto-plankton are collectively the ocean pasture. A famous America writer Walt Whitman once wrote “all beef is grass, ” similarly all “fish are plankton” for plankton are the pasture upon which fish graze.
Carbon dioxide, CO2, while best known for its role in global warming and climate change as the most problematic greenhouse gas, is an even bigger problem for the oceans. Reliable scientific reports from research groups around the world have been accumulating and show that in the past 5-10 years CO2 has twin impacts on the oceans. First CO2 is causing rapid and deadly ocean acidification. At the same time the secondary effect of excess CO2 is ocean micro nutrient deprivation. Together these twin effects are destroying the marine food chain from the bottom up. While the global community works through such mechanisms as the Kyoto Protocol to try to reduce the impact of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that produce ‘global warming’ and 'climate change' there is scant hope that those best efforts, even if implemented immediately, will produce a change substantial enough or in time to save the ocean pastures. Fortunately 20 years and $200 million worth of dedicated research on ocean ecorestoration gives us a course to follow.
Our results, and those of the international ocean science community, clearly show that the critical missing ingredient that normally keeps our ocean pastures in good health is simple iron rich dust. The problem is the loss of dust in the wind. The dirt and dust that blows from land out onto the oceans is in dramatic decline as CO2 and climate change is greening the lands of the planet. Just as the rainwater is the oceans gift to the land, the lands return this gift to the oceans in the form of dust in the wind. While this decline in dust may seem an insurmountable problem indeed the amount of vital mineral micro-nutrients the oceans need is miraculously small. It can and must be replenished by our human efforts, and can best be done in concert with existing ocean activities such as the harvest of tuna from those ocean pastures. If we do not become patrons of our ocean pastures, like ranchers who give nothing back to their lands, the lands, and the oceans, become unproductive deserts.
The science and ocean ecotechnology development work of Planktos Science and other researchers have shown that for each tonne of iron rich natural mineral micronutrient that is delivered to the ocean in proper location, form, and manner hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plankton grows. Our efforts are focused on translating this scientific and nautical know how into action.
Imagine a large modern tuna seiner with a capacity of 1000 tonnes performing double duty. On its way to its fishing pastures it engages in tending to those tuna pastures through the delivery of vital natural mineral nutrients. The empty ship carries 200-500 tonnes of our prepared natural iron dust (incidentally a good ballast for the empty ship), it disperses our prescribed nutrient cargo in very dilute form over a large area selected by us for its capacity to respond to the nutrient addition. The result is the restoration of growth of plant plankton, the bottom of the food chain and ultimately fish food. Million of tonnes of plankton grows from our small but vital natural cargo. The ocean food chain has about a 10% conversion efficiency as food is eaten in steps up the food chain. Tuna, 2 or 3 steps, up the food chain from plankton will benefit from this ocean ecorestoration effort and 6-18 months later we will see the results in the production of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tonnes more, healthier, and larger tuna.
Since a single tuna seiner with a full catch expects to be loaded with 1000 tonnes of tuna the benefit our managed ocean stewardship delivers to both fishermen and the ocean environment becomes obvious. Together with the fishers we grow more and bigger fish and we know where they are, hence it will be cost effective to change from hunters of wild stocks to harvesters of a carefully managed sustainable harvest.
Experience shows us we have the ability to synchronize fishing activities with our blooms and thus dramatically reduce fishing costs. However like the growing of cattle, the return for being a patron of good pastures is not all realized immediately, but rather is seen in over time. Our smart, careful, and caring stewardship of the ocean pasture is rewarded by the nature we help sustain.
We make use of the fleet of ocean observing satellites, buoys, and instruments we place on ships that will create and monitor the blooms. Ideally this will involve many ships and importantly it should be done by the ships that are already going to the same ocean pastures to harvest. This fundamental change of looking to the ocean and its fish as something we must care for through directed efforts will deliver the same advantages the human race enjoyed as we changed from hunting of wild animals on land to the caring for and raising our food animals. This process which replenishes and restores natural processes that have been depleted will repair and restore the balance of nature.
Because there are many regulating agencies and concerned organizations there are many costs to take into consideration including to show that necessary environmental monitoring is being performed. This is a new effort and Planktos has invested many years of development effort and millions of dollars to develop our unique knowledge and technologies.
Planktos Science is the recognized world leader in this new ocean biotechnology and ecorestoration arena and has the team, know how, and experience to succeed. Our work to assist fishers to become ocean stewards is done via confidential technology transfer agreements. If you or your company is interested in switching from being hunters to ocean stewards we invite your confidential inquiries.
Contact: fishery stewards(at)planktos-science(dot)com