Micro-screen harvesters and other devices can be used to scoop
ocean-hypoxic zone nitrogen-phosphate rich algae into holding tanks, and
introduce the nutrient rich matter to the Sahara/other desert zones. Soil
building processes—including adding fungii to introduce microbes in soil,
composting and balancing with peat, clays and minerals (precipitated from
bio-fuel production projects which may also be sourced from hypoxic water-zone
bio-population-explosions) can utilize the solids and grey-water byproducts of
organic-harvest processing. Introduce low-water-consumption xeriscaped plants,
and augment with bio-diverse plantings (including succulents-- ice plant,
harvesting fruit to prevent invasion of species; dragon fruit and cactus pear,
etc); then vegetable, flowering, fruit and other trees—can decrease heat bloom,
desiccation, desertification; and can increase pollinator-support, food and
water security.
Dead Zones
(hypoxia) are large regions of water so low in oxygen that they cannot support
most aquatic life. Algae blooms on the surface of waters block the sun’s rays
from reaching underwater plants, and even grow on sea weeds and aquatic plants
growing near enough to the surface, further reducing the amount of sunlight
they receive. Without sunlight, water plants (sea weeds, kelps, large grasses)
cannot grow, and provide critical food, habitat, and even oxygen to oceanic and
inland waters.
Leftover
algae that are not consumed by fish (and that is another problem, since small
fish fry, polyps and other small species which consume algae are consumed by
the myriad jellyfish which thrive in low-oxygen, algae-rich waters) fall to the
bottom of the water-system, where they are decomposed by bacteria which leaves
little or no dissolved oxygen for the shellfish and other bottom-dwelling species
in the aquatic environment. Burning fossil fuels continues to pump carbon into
the atmosphere, further lowering oceanic/aquatic pH, also ideal conditions for
incubating algae blooms, jellyfish, and the
Overfishing
and the “throw-away” bycatch further
threatens the well-being of our oceans and waterways, by depleting needed
populations of algae- and jellyfish- eaters, and by adding to the decomposition
of aquatic life on ocean and deep-water floors. Whales, dolphins, loggerhead
and leatherback marine turtles are caught, and die, each year, in commercial
fishing gear, while trawling ocean floors kills the kelps, sea grasses, and
shellfish which could help keep the world’s waters clean and oxygenated. With
90% of the ocean’s large fish in decline, jellyfish do not have as many
predators as they used to. Meahwhile, Pelagia Noctiluca (“Mauve Stingers”
plague the Mediterranean seas by the millions; Nomura’s Jelly Fish (echizen kurage in Japanese), which can
grow to over 600 pounds, and other species of jellyfish are thriving in the
dying waters of the world.
However, we
are not without solutions to diminish, and correct, the poisoning and
suffocation of our oceans and waterways. Instead of overfishing depleted fish
populations, trawlers can be contracted to scoop up surface algae before they
die and fall to the waters’ bottom layers, and to remove the huge infestations
of jellyfish which currently clog water-zones, and eat much of the fish eggs
and small fry that, if left undisturbed, could better repopulate healthy oceans
and waters. Catching, and utilizing jellyfish as food, fuel, or compost is a
far better solution than chopping them up in the water, since this only causes
the butchered jellyfish to release hundreds, even thousands of polyps, which
can mature into additional jellyfish needing to be cleaned up.
While some
algae and jellyfish can be processed and eaten (various cultures have dined on
healthy species for centuries), or (especially if largely dead/decomposing,
therefore inedible masses of algae and jellyfish are collected) treated and
processed into methane, compost, and recycled grey-water products in anerobic
extractors and micro-digester systems, algae and jellyfish can also be utilized
as raw materials for building nutrient-rich soils in sand-based or depleted
topsoil systems. Whether processed for direct, super-saturated aquatic
application to non-arable soil bases (especially efficient in warm/hot zones
where decomposition processes are rapid), or utilized in methane-production
(“renewable” fuel, which can be further “cleaned and greened” by solar-heated
evaporation processes), the compostable materials from jellyfish and algae
population explosions can rebuild terrestrial ecosystems, with the addition of
fungi and beneficial microbes, processing worms and other digesters,
nitrogen-fixing legumes and other plants, and xeriscaped agriculture.
And waterway
and oceanic cleanup can similarly progress, by instituting
submerged-rope-farming of kelps (e.g. the red kelp Gracilaria) and other filtration-efficient, bio-remediation water
grasses and sea weeds (which remove inorganic nutrients from waters, produce
oxygen, and provide food and habitat), and the submerged-rope-and-net farming
of clams, mussels, and other bivalves filter organically-bound particles,
e-coli, and other microbes which would otherwise contribute to the
nutrient-rich, acidified, warm waters which lead to algae blooms, algae death/water-floor
decomposition, and the spread of hypoxic waterzones and massive populations of
jellyfish.
Since sea
weeds and shell fish can provide solid nutritional value to human consumers,
industries which invest in such bio-remediation measures can reap profits along
with their ocean- and water- cleaning harvests. Methane fuel-producers,
grey-water extractors, and compost-processors, similarly, can earn living wages
while utilizing the algae and jellyfish infestations which are clogging our
waterways, to produce clean energy, reusable water, and arable lands to support
terrestrial eco- and agri-systems. Whether small/artisanal-sized operations, or
scalable to regional, or global water-cleanup efforts supported by industry,
NGO, and government investors in a program of serendipitous benefit to oceans,
lands, and the humans running the industries and cleanup efforts, bio-extaction
of raw materials, and bio-remediation through kelp, water-grasses, and
shell-fish farming can improve the chances of sustainable life for many, if not
most, of the globe’s millions of species of Earthlings on our shared,
interdependent planet.
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