phytoplankton development

[mhester]

Hello to all at Reef Central; With advance apologies for my complete ignorance, I have a question to pose to your community. While learning about marine diversity with my 9 year old daughter, I was struck by the fundamental importance (obvious to you all, I'm sure) of the role of phytoplankton in the health of the oceans, and since I can't find the answer to my question I figured I would just ask the world at large. So - since phytoplankton is so basically crucial, would a "plankton farm", set up to dispense the appropriate species of plankton directly into the ocean be a wise development project for coastal areas that have been over-fished? I can imagine that such a farm might be a dangerous manipulation of Mother Nature, and I am ashamed at the hubris this concept reveals, but I would like your expert thoughts as to the viability. If we pumped plankton into the ocean could we potentially reverse or mitigate some of the damage we've done? Could we, essentially, help feed the ocean? Should we?
BTW, I do not envision this as a commercial opportunity, but more of a public works project. Thank you for your feedback.

[Mr James]

Is lack of plankton the problem?? I always thought it was warmer sea's that was the issue?!? (...being careful not to use the volitile words Global Warming)....

And Mhester,

[welcome]

[greenbean36191]

In the case of overfishing, larval food (phytoplankton) generally isn't the limiting factor. Usually it's the lack of reproductive adults. So no, it won't help on that front. In fact, it can actually be counterproductive. Too much phytoplankton can lead to the formation of dead zones where there's no nutrients for the phytoplankton to continue growing so it dies and is consumed by bacteria. In the process of consuming the phytoplankton the bacteria also uses all the oxygen in the water and any animals that can't get away die of hypoxia.

Increasing phytoplankton growth has been tried for other purposes though, particularly to sequester and sink CO2 into the deep ocean.

[mhester]

Thank you so much for the clarification. Since we're talking theoretically, I wonder if there were an effective dispersion system (using sweeping/traveling booms or floating platforms, as well as strong and consistent ocean currents) you could keep the concentrations below the "dead zone" threshold. But I guess your main point is that the real limiting factor is reproductive adults; I don't know how we fix that. Guess I'll keep on dreaming of a healthy sustained ocean. Again, thank you very much for the education.