## The Rogue Geo-Hacker

In 2012, an American businessman chartered a fishing boat, drove into international waters off the coast of Canada, and dumped 120 tons of iron dust into the ocean. It triggered a massive, 10,000-square-kilometer phytoplankton algae bloom visible from space.

### FAQ

**Q: Why is dumping iron in the ocean illegal but highly profitable?**
A: The Limiting Nutrient. Most of the deep ocean is a desert because it lacks iron. Algae need iron to photosynthesize CO2 into oxygen. By dumping highly cheap iron sulfate off a boat, you artificially trigger a massive ecological bloom. When the algae eventually die, they sink 4,000 meters down to the abyssal plain, burying millions of tons of carbon out of the atmosphere permanently. Startups want to do this and sell the "carbon offset credits" to companies like Delta Airlines. The UN banned it because triggering uncontrolled massive algae blooms can create massive "dead zones" that suffocate and kill all marine life and fish in the sector, destroying the local ecosystem for decades.