An Easy Way to Feed the World
by Win Wenger, Ph.D.
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Through a simple, economical system of oceanic fish farms, a few ship-mounted air pumps and some pipes can meet the world’s protein needs several times over.
This is an effect which, if there is interest, could be in full operation within less than one year.
- Much of the ocean now is as lifeless and unproductive as the severest desert. By contrast, before man overfished and polluted it, the Grand Banks off Newfoundland used to feed a major part of the world. The difference? The configuration of winds, strong wind-whipped currents and waves, and shallow sea bottom aerated the ocean waters which kicked up bottom sediments to nourish sea life.
- Make any shallow sea area — down to several hundred feet deep — as productive of life and fish as the Grand Banks used to be. Mount construction-sized air pumps on ships (later, when you get the placements and technology optimized, on permanent platforms). Drive air down through pipes to the sea bottom and let it bubble back up from there, dragging sediments up with it. This aerates the water to better sustain fish, and kicks up bottom nutrients to sustain that on which fish live.
- Fish would remain in the area where their feeding is good, making for easy harvesting. Alternatively,
- Fish don’t swim through barriers of bubbles — “bubble curtains” released from pipes or hoses with holes along their length to release the air pumped through them. A little extra air equipment lets you “fence off” sections of the sea with air bubble curtains, for still greater ease and security of harvesting.
The sea, under the right conditions, can be made enormously productive. Each such oceanic farm can profitably and substantially improve the food condition of the world. A few such oceanic farms can supply the whole world’s protein needs several times over. Even one such farm aerating the Sargasso Sea could transform one of the world’s poorer areas into one of the world’s richer areas. See further details at Hurricane Stopper and at Beach Builder.
A “Blue” Revolution in World Food Production
Bonus — use much the same equipment to “turn over” warm surface waters, bringing up colder waters from below to starve down storms and stop tropical tempests literally in their tracks. See Hurricane Stopper and Beach Builder.
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On a piece of paper, or in a blank file, please write down all the reasons why this simple air-bubbled aeration/nutrient idea, for oceanic farms, cannot possibly work:
- Reason #1: It can’t possibly work, because:
- Reason #2: It can’t possibly work, because:
- Reason #3: it can’t possibly work, because:
Now, once you’ve got THAT out of your way — here is the main thing that you can do, that can help one hundred million human beings:
- Argue about this with someone. Anyone, but preferably someone who might know a connection with a university or with biomedical research and genome research. Argument develops further information, including further and better ideas.
- You are welcome to make copies of this document and to pass it along as you deem appropriate. Your own interest in this proposed way to resolve much of the problems of world hunger, is also welcome. We acknowledge that at our present moment in time, distribution of food is a greater problem than is production of food, but suggest that it is still a good idea also to improve its production.
UPDATE! — August 2007 — New Mexico Scientist: Plankton Could Counter Climate Change
A New Mexico Tech scientist believes he has found a way to head off dangerous climate change. Oliver Wingenter said the idea is simple — fertilize the ocean so that more plankton can grow. Read his full article.
Win Wenger comments:
Until now I was sadly convinced that conservation measures regarding CO2 would be too little and too late to meaningfully affect the outcome. Wingenter’s observations regarding production of dimethyl sulfide by plankton changes my mind on this. My system for oceanic fish farming also, necessarily, very much enhances conditions for plankton to flourish, and has the advantage that we don’t have to dump chemicals and substances into the ocean in order to fertilize the plankton. The dead waters offshore of Texas and Louisiana could be similarly treated and brought into plankton productivity, without being used to fishfarm because of the chemicals which killed all life there in the first place.
In other words, the combination of my proposal for fish farming, with Wingenter’s proposal to boost production of plankton and therefore the Earth-shading effects of dimethyl sulfide, with even fairly mild versions of the proposed CO2-conservation measures, may be enough to restabilize Earth’s climate and food supply, even while boosting food supply for billions now starving.
UPDATE! — March 2008 — Sound may teach fish to catch themselves
Scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time.
Win Wenger comments:
Intended now only for bringing up stocks of depleted varieties of fish, this proposed training of fish to come feed at the sound of a bell has obvious implications for reducing the costs of netting and catching fish generally in the context of oceanic fish farming. However, the air bubble curtains proposed in our article, already in play to bring up nutrients and aerate the waters, may suffice to contain or herd in the fish at low or no additional cost — and maybe without the same sense of betrayal!