Is it legal?

There is no law or international agreement that prevents us from doing this,' said Dr Lee Rice, of GreenSea Venture. 'It is perfectly legal.'

Image painted by Nicola Diamond - many thanks!

The 'global common' of the oceans have been legally protected by international agreement for half a century.

The "Geneva Conventions on the Law of the Sea(1958)" restricted the traditional "free-for-all" attitude to the seas, while the "London Convention (1972)" specifically aimed to 'protect the marine environment from unregulated dumping of waste'.
This disallows dumping pollutants into the seas - but intentionally released iron solutions are not termed 'pollutants'. Technically, the additional atmospheric carbon dioxide to be drawn into the seas could be considered an "industrial pollutant" - but the claim is tenuous, and the US have recently rejected that notion. [1]

Specific legislation (including the 1959 Antarctic Treaty) covers Antarctica's Southern Ocean, and focuses on prevention of environmental and ecological harm. Further, coastal nations legislate to protect their 200-mile exclusion zones. However; these treaties all encourage scientific research, and smaller island-nations are tempted by lucrative offers for access to their coastal waters.

Despite ecological fears, iron-fertilisation is considered harmless, and experts conclude there are currently no legal restrictions to its commercial exploitation.

"I believe there are no legal precedents that directly apply to ocean fertilization, thought there are parts of existing laws that are relevant. It is my understanding that scientists can go ahead with ocean fertilisation if governments can agree, and where the benefits accrue to everybody." Geoff Holland, Past Secretary International Ocean Commission (IOC), in a presentation to the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography 2001 [2]

Not only is it not illegal to dump iron into the seas, but there is no legal framework to demand a full environmental impact assessment for the activity. Whilst academic researchers need to address responsibilities, risks and possible benefits at an international level (for large-scale projects), no such requirement is laid upon the private companies like Planktos and GreenSea Ventures. Planktos claimed, "Until now, the number of field experiments has been restricted to those with major research budgets. By using an old sailing vessel, we were able to show that useful ocean research is not the exclusive domain of the richest researchers". [3] But nor is it the exclusive domain of those regulated by risk- and environmental-impact assessments.

Clearly, international law must be updated. It must require the same scale of "environmental impact assessment" as is required for terrestrial development, or already by research institutes to cover the private industries. Further, the Law of the Sea should cover this, and any form of geo-engineering the oceans.

Refs:

[1] Greenhouse Network Bush Administration: Carbon Dioxide Not a Pollutant
From Knight Ridder News Service - August 29, 2003 By Seth Borenstein
http://www.greenhousenet.org/news/AUG-03/carbondioxide.html

[2] The American Society of Limnology and Oceanography "Ocean Fertilization Symposium", April 25th 2001
http://www.aslo.org/meetings/carbon2001/holland/transcript1.html

[3] "Climate change: The oresmen", Nature 421, 109 - 110. 9 January 2003. Quirin Schiermeier

Other references re the Legal status:

Legal and Political Aspects of Enhanced Natural Carbon Sequestration in the Southern Ocean" Dr Julia Jabour-Green. November 2001
The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering http://www.atse.org.au/publications/symposia/proc-2001p7.htm

Oceans and Law of the Sea: http://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm
London Convention (Protocol 72): http://www.londonconvention.org/
The Antarctic Treaty: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/anttrty.htm