We take a fresh look at geology and climate, important problems of Science and related to Science . . .
Such problems as how World ocean fisheries have greatly declined, while demand for wild fish has continued to increase.
Hence tripling of fish prices at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market from 2007 to 2010. Hence greatly increased Catch Effort, more fishing trips; using more fuel to catch fewer fish and so on.
Increased Catch Effort is not the only or best solution to the problem. A better way to invest fishing dollars is to enhance fisheries instead of further degrading them. Half of the world’s wild ocean fish depend on natural upwellings, which bring nutrients up into the sunlit surface, the “euphotic” zone, from deeper, more nutrified layers. These natural upwellings occupy only 0.1% of the surface of the ocean.
Adding an extra 0.2% of upwelling area to the oceans would double the world’s supply of wild fish. Our Nutrient Megapump imitates natural upwellings by using heat from HydroThermal Vents (HTVs) to pump nutrients into the euphotic zone to further enrich ocean ecosystems. Modelling shows a Gain of ~30,000. Each litre of HTV water pumps ~30 tonnes of nutrient.
Namibian and Peruvian natural upwelling fish production rates, Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market values, and our estimated yield of a 1 Giga-Watt (GW) Nutrient Megapump gives an annual return from its fisheries product of $80 million/ year.
Carbon Credits of possibly greater value would be a further income. Ocean acidification due to CO2 is increasingly seen as threatening marine ecosystems. But our estimated $300 million cost of a 1GW Nutrient Megapump could be paid for by the fisheries value alone. Hence apparent profitability.
More powerful , say 1-10GW Megapumps, would have even greater economies of scale.