Monday, December 30, 2013

Dr Sylvia Earl - what to do about the loss of fish populations

I just today heard a session on ABC Radio National featuring an interview with Dr Sylvia Earl who has been studying the ocean for many decades. It was fascinating to hear and it was quite salutary to hear how in the 1960s and '70s   Dr Earl was having to push to get herself included on expeditions just because she was a woman.

One thing that worried me though is I heard nothing from Dr Earl or the interviewer, etc, about actually feeding the fish! Dr Earl described how so many regions of the ocean and the rivers flowing into it have been irrevocably changed by human plundering and polluting. One suggestion offered was to stop eating fish.   Well I have to say I cannot bear that thought.

What we need to do is Feed the Fish!  
This can only be done on a scale large enough to be useful if we, the human beings of this planet, start drawing up nutrient rich water from the ocean bottom. 
  • Remember folks: In the Ocean -- Shit Sinks
That is why all the good stuff that ocean plants need is down there, four kilometres below, hidden away from the sun light so neither the planktons nor the multicellular plants can get at it. 
But we can! We can bring it up to the surface.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

I have been trying to draw some diagrams to explain what I think we should be doing. I will scan these and post them here in the next day or so.
Meanwhile, here is a link to similar minded thinking displayed on Wikipedia.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

  • A thing to remember is that none of this is rocket science!
    This is all doable with technology already available and very well understood.   
  • As the Wikipedia article shows, this is a 'base load' technology; it will just hum along in the background for ever and a day. This power source will keep insulated ice in a frozen, solid, less-dense-than-seawater, state for hundreds if not thousands of years. 
Notice that the authors of the article are pointing to all the things I have mentioned in the description in the side panel at the right hand side of this blog page