Alaska’s top resource managers are briefed on the hope and promise of ocean pasture restoration that will tackle the CRISIS of both fisheries collapse and climate change.
Alaska State Senators hope to see OPR Alaska Bring Back The Fish, again!
Our company was delighted to have the opportunity to testify to the Alaska Senators on Monday. Founder Russ George reported on our business plan to begin a 3-year commercial-scale demonstration project on ocean pasture restoration (OPR) in the Gulf of Alaska. We’re confident this R&D phase of our business will deliver definitive data to prove that ocean pasture restoration is safe, sustainable both ecologically and financially, and is the World’s best hope to restore both fisheries and climate.
President Biden has acted to show that the restoration of fisheries and climate is amongst his, and the nations’, highest priorities. One of his first actions in office was to sign an executive order on January 27th commanding federal and state government agencies ‘to deliver working solutions to save fisheries and restore the climate within 60 days.’
OPR Alaska is seeking to engage in a partnership with the State of Alaska to offer our private sector for-profit OPR ‘shovel-ready’ business plan to President Biden’s ‘executive order’. We will deliver the results commanded, better, faster, and cheaper including protecting the jobs of tens of thousands of Alaskans in the fishing industry while generating hundreds of millions in additional revenues in the state.
This video of the Alaska Senate Resource Committee has an introduction by Ted Crookston, an Alaskan commercial fisherman from Kenai – his family is 4 generations of Alaska fishermen.
Alaska has the most important ocean pastures
Alaska holds the distinction of representing 61% of the entire USA fishing industry. Nearly 70,000 Alaskans depend on fish for their livelihoods. Their work delivers $5.6 billion dollars into the state economy each year. But Alaska’s fish have been in dire straits, especially the iconic salmon, which have been mysteriously disappearing in the Gulf of Alaska.
Ocean Pasture Restoration isn’t new, there is a 30-year history of research and development of OPR by the international ocean science and climate change community. Hundreds of millions of dollars of public and private funds have been invested over the decades in many OPR experiments performed by consortia of ocean science groups around the world.
As a result of these decades of directed R&D, OPR technology and methodology is recognized as a proven ‘nature-based’ means to reverse the 70-year collapse of ocean pasture ecosystems. That collapse, which is the most immediate and dire part of global climate change, has contributed to the disappearance of salmon in the North Pacific, as well as countless other fish populations and ocean life around the world.
It just works!
OPR works by replenishing missing vital mineral dust that climate change has prevented from reaching the Alaskan ocean pastures. The immediate result of our replenishment – those pastures will be seen to be restored to historic green health and abundance.
Proof of OPR’s spectacular results is clearly revealed in Alaska Fish & Game data shown to the Senators. The data, published by the state last year, showed the largest catch of salmon in Alaskan history coincided precisely with the OPR large-scale project performed in 2012. The record-breaking catches continued for several years. The value of OPR in Bringing Back The Fish to the state economy was well over $1 billion dollars!
Testifying to the fact that OPR is safe, sustainable, and good business is seen in the fact that it brings back hundreds of millions of additional fish. But this is not some sort of technological and artificial geoengineering, it follows closely lessons from Nature.
When vital dust arrives in the ocean in the right form, to the right place, at the right time – the ocean plankton pastures bloom and are sustained for months, feeding all of ocean life. Baby salmon when they swim out to sea, instead of mostly starving, are treated to a feast. They grow and grow and before too long, they swim back to their rivers by the millions healthy and strong.
The following simple graphic shows how OPR Alaska performs ocean pasture restoration. It just works!
Many Miracles
There are many miracles of eco-restoration delivered by OPR as this nature-based technology in the largest ecosystem – the 72% of our blue planet that is our oceans.
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Brings Back The Fish and all of ocean life, plankton, seabirds, seals, whales
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Reduces Ocean Acidification by repurposing deadly CO2 into new life
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Scrubs And Removes deadly mercury from surface oceans
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Restores Plankton Blooms as a source of clouds, rains, and global cooling
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World’s Best Hope to mitigate the lion’s share of anthropogenic CO2
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Questions & Answers
The Senator’s asked many questions about OPR during their hearing on the topic. They seemed convinced that getting on with OPR in the Gulf of Alaska is vitally important.
Senator Kiehle stated, “There are questions of whether OPR will really deliver the results presented” and “he was eager to see what the data (from the 3-yr proposed project) would reveal.”
Chair of the committee, Senator Revak, stated “OPR sounded almost too good to be true”, but he followed up by asking in a hopeful tone, “Is there a chance OPR Alaska could begin its work as soon as this summer?”
OPR founder Russ George replied to Chairman Revak, “We hope so, but timing is tight”. He further noted, “If we were to get out to sea this summer, Alaskan’s can expect to catch hundreds of millions of additional salmon next year.”
Will OPR work for other fish, how about for Atlantic Salmon on the East coast of the USA.
The answer is most certainly yes. Here’s a link to begin some reading on OPR for Atlantic Salmon. https://russgeorge.net/?s=atlantic+salmon&submit=Search
PDF of our Alaska Senate slides OPR Alaaka_Senate_short_pitch_deck_05Mar_rg1