Ocean Nourishment Corporation (ONC)
•••••Ocean Nourishment Corporation Pty Ltd (‘ONC’) was incorporated in Australia in 2004 specifically to develop Ocean Nourishment technology to realize its potential as part of the solution to looming global challenges.  The company grew from early recognition that little additional land was available to tackle food and climate security and that the oceans are the major natural carbon store and generally a poorly managed resource with much untapped potential.
•••••“Ocean Nourishment Corporation is an ethical organization, established with the goals of mitigating the impacts of rapid climate change, providing sustainable sources of protein rich food from the oceans and reducing acidification of the surface ocean.”

•••••What do they do? Their team of scientists, engineers and oceanographers are working on ocean solutions that are both sustainable and scalable.  Their aim is to make a positive difference for a more sustainable world. 
•••••ONC works in partnership with academic institutions researching where and how Ocean Nourishment solutions can be implemented. 
•••••They focus on how carbon transfers to and is stored within the ocean depths by means of the oceans biological pump, how biological processes in the surface ocean might assist in reducing ocean acidification. They are researching open ocean marine culture for enhancing the sustainable harvest of marine protein.

•••••Ocean Nourishment is an Ocean NET (Negative Emissions Technology) with the potential to remove significant tons of carbon out of the atmosphere to the deep ocean carbon store. In some regions of the ocean iron is the limiting nutrient while in the majority of the ocean, the macronutrient nitrogen, limits phytoplankton growth. The fertilization with macronutrients, has been termed Ocean Nourishment and has a number of differences to fertilization by iron. Some misunderstandings arise because analogies of coastal eutrophication and iron fertilization are uncritically assumed to apply to macronutrient fertilization. The follow are seven misunderstandings that persist and can now be discounted. These seen are:
•••••Export will be low due to enhancement of the microbial loop.
•••••Phosphate and silica will need to be supplied.
•••••The quantity and cost of nitrogen make carbon sequestration uneconomic.
•••••Fertilization with urea encourages dinoflagellates.
•••••Size distribution will unsuitable (too small) for zooplankton and herbivorous fish.
•••••Fertilization will cause alarming levels of oxygen consumption. Implementation carries large ecological risk.

•••••By contrast, for low fertilization concentrations, away from shallow water, in a prevailing current, and in temperate waters - the seven concerns above can be shown to be mild enough to justify open ocean small scale scientific experimentation.
•••••Their focus is on catalyzing localized ecosystem restoration with multiple benefits arising from healthy ecosystem function. By nourishing plants (phytoplankton) at the base of the marine food chain Ocean Nourishment can enhance or support vital ecosystem services for multiple benefits accrued as natural capital. By investing in the protection and long- term sustainability of natural systems they aim to assist in the protection and on-going adaptation of human populations (human capital) to changing climatic conditions and support positive socio-economic development (social capital).

•••••Patents Held
Carbon sequestration using a floating vessel, Patent No. 2007352235
Jurisdictions held: Australia, Europe, USA
Use of a floating vessel to spread urea in the ocean
Measurement of sequestered carbon, Patent No. US 8,728,755
Jurisdictions held: USA, Australia, Europe
Method of determining the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered into the ocean as a result of Ocean Nourishment, Patent No. 2008238614

•••••Agenda ONC’s agenda is to assist in providing scalable solutions to global environmental problems including the excess carbon dioxide waste in the atmosphere and its effects on climate security, ocean acidification and the decline of world fisheries from overfishing, poor management and environmental degradation. These are lofty goals and therefore ONC is no ordinary business, our triple bottom line is environment first, social second and economic third.
•••••Their macronutrient technology is applicable to more than 60% of the world’s ocean area, our research therefore has significant global reach from China, to North Africa to South America and Australia.
•••••Since the Ocean Nourishment Corporation (ONC) collaborates with other academic institutions, it is reasonable that we would join in a collaboration with them. This would save on over-lapping a scientific staff and research.