Russ George

In July 2012, George and partners in the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation conducted an ocean pasture restoration experiment spreading 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean from a fishing boat in an eddy 200 nautical miles west of the islands of Haida Gwaii.[5] George claimed this resulted in increased growth of phytoplankton over 10,000 square miles.[6][7] Some critics asserted George's actions were illegal[8] while others have argued that they were not.[9][10] Critics allege violations of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the London Convention on the Dumping of Wastes at Sea which contain moratoriums on geoengineering experiments.[3] Parties to the London Convention and London Protocol expressed grave concerns about this experiment.[11]  Romany M. Webb,  Senior Fellow and Associate Research Scholar for the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at  Columbia Law School answered this way: “The parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have adopted a resolution, which says that countries should avoid “ocean fertilization activities,” except those conducted as part of small-scale scientific research projects in coastal waters. Notably, however, the resolution is not legally binding. So, provided countries complied with other provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity, they could go ahead with the (OPR) type of project.” Webb added that the amendment to the London Protocol that relates to OPR has not “yet entered into force so, at the moment, has no legal effect.”[12] Edward A. (Ted) Parson, the Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law and Faculty Co-director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles said about the Haida project at the time, “There’s a ruckus going on over an experiment in ocean fertilization conducted off the coast of British Columbia in July and disclosed this week. The Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, an enterprise of the Haida village of Old Massett, used a large fishing vessel to spread 100 tons of iron sulfate-rich dust on the ocean surface west of Haida Gwaii (or the Queen Charlotte Islands). The aim of the release was to increase plankton growth and there promote growth of fisheries and maybe also remove carbon from the atmosphere. Such interventions exist in a near legal vacuum. Critics of the Old Massett Haida project are claiming it violates international law, but this is simply not true. Mainly due to vigorous lobbying by a couple of small NGOs (the same ones now outraged at the Haida project), parties to the CBD have adopted two decisions discouraging ocean fertilization, and geoengineering generally. But these are purely advisory – and are moreover so clumsily drafted that even if they were legally binding (which they are not), their operational meaning would be utterly opaque…. Nations are under no legal obligation to refrain from ocean fertilization research, nor to submit proposals to any international process.”[13] Search warrants were executed by Environment Canada's enforcement branch to investigate Russ George's office concerning the iron enrichment he performed in 2012 off the coast of British Columbia.[14][15]

In May 2013, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation removed George as a director of the company and ended his employment.[16] Russ George sued the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, its directors, and several others in 2014.[17] In a counterclaim the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation claimed that Russ George lied about his credentials and academic qualifications, assaulted the project leader, and acted in an "irrational, unprofessional and offensive manner".[17] In 2016, Russ George was ordered to pay security for legal costs.[18]

On July 15, 2014, the oceanographic scientific data gathered during the project was made publicly available under the ODbL license.[19]

Research conducted on 13 major iron-fertilization experiments in the open ocean since 1990 determined that the method is unproven; with respect to the Haida Gwaii project, "scientists have seen no evidence that the experiment worked", concluded a 2017 article in Nature.[20] Although, the experiment clearly did result in a strong phytoplankton bloom that lasted for months.[21] Moreover, in the relevant area, the expected catch of Pink Salmon in 2013 was predicted by salmon experts and managers to be 50 million fish. But the catch turned out to be 224 million Pinks, that is 4.5 times the official prediction, the largest catch in all of history.[22]

John Disney, President of the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, made this statement on October 19, 2012: “Our project has generated a great deal of media attention both nationally and internationally. I want to tell you about the project, what we did, how we did it. This project was not entered into lightly. And we have complied with every necessary aspect of the ocean governance before undertaking the work. I want to make very clear: we do not consider micronutrient replenishment of a naturally occurring substance to be pollution. We are using this for restoration purposes, to restore the salmon back to their rightful place in the Old Massey economy. We have created a great team, working to develop the knowledge that will allow us to have a sustainable future, and that is the guiding principle of the company. As President, I am very cognisant of all of the requirements of the scientific and legal nature that applies to this project. I’d like to say that at this time that the international media and national media seems to have focused on Russ George who we brought in as our Chief Scientist. I want to make this emphatically clear: Russ George did not, I’m saying did not come to us to dupe us or sell us a bill of goods. We approached him, and we based that on ten years of work with him in other fields. I’ve known Russ for over ten years and I’ll you something that is very rare: he has never once lied to me, he’s only told me the truth, he has a great integrity, and he’s never let us down. And every time he’s told me something that I thought was unbelievable I’ve checked it out and he’s always been right. And I challenge anyone else in the corporate world to come up with that about a person. Russ has one aim in life: he wants to try and make the planet a better place. That’s it. I don’t care what else you read.”[23]

• Official website
• Planktos Inc.
• Planktos Science
• Supplemental materials from Russ George to House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
• Profile of Russ George by Bruce Falconer in Pacific Standard
• (in French) Des tonnes de sulfate de fer déversées dans le Pacifique