When expelled by the animal into the sea, ambergris can develop fragrant properties over time, which makes it a valuable ingredient in perfumes.

The waxy, rock-like substance is produced in the intestinal tract of one out of every 100 sperm whales. While the sale of ambergris is legal in most European countries where it is classified as refuse, it is criminalized under IndiaвЂ™s wildlife protection laws. But it's still a long way from there, he says - first they have to see if the experimentВ works at all.No such luck for Indian fishermen though. King says his team has thought about thatВ problem and is looking to use naturally occurring materials. 'Dumping huge amounts of nutrients into the ocean will increase demand and, eventually, costs for nutrients worldwide, also making food more expensive,' he wrote. Oschlies says he is also concerned about the impact of artificial fertilization on other environmental systems. 'And all suggestions regarding nitrogen fertilization have, as far as I know, neglected feedbacks in the nitrogen cycle, which will likely reduce or in some regions reverse the intended increase in ,'В wrote Oschlies. Macro-nutrients are nutrients that an organism needs in large amounts. 'Whale poo is just another flavor of macro-nutrient fertilization,' wrote Andreas Oschlies, a program director at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, in an email. Others say King's idea isn't even new - only packaged in a novel way. 'We don't want to create those problems in the oceans,' says King. On land that's been fertilized with artificial substances that killВ earthworms, however, studies show that water is not retained by the soil and that crops tend to die. Earthworms do all the plowing for us in a very gentle way.'Д®xperiments show, says King, how earthworms help water to soak into the soil in a way that is good for plant growth. 'Most of our farmland is devoid of earthworms, which is ridiculous,' says King. Once those tests are concluded, they would like to conduct further experiments in many of the world's oceans, King says.Д«ut King says they don't just want to dump a bunch of chemicals into the ocean - there are lessons to be learned from research on artificial fertilization in agriculture. In their initial experiment, they will aim to understand how well the husks carry the poop. When the husks are baked, they turn into 'beautiful ocean rafts,' says King. The rice husks are a waste product that they will source from a factory in Goa.Д¬arbon capture: Is it genuinely feasible?

They will use rice husks to store the artificial poop on the surface of the seabed. Both have been observed to help phytoplankton growth. And the scientists will use natural materials like volcanic ash or desert sand to create it. Their fake whale poo will consist of nitrates, phosphates, silicates and iron - similar to the real stuff. King and his team aim to start their investigations off southwestern India in April. In 2020, human activities emitted more than 34 billion tons of carbon dioxide - so, if King's projections are correct, the oceans could capture more than half of our annual global greenhouse gas emissions. King says the idea could result in the oceans capturing between 2 to 20 billion tons of greenhouse gasses per year. The lead researcher is Professor Sir David King, the Chair of Cambridge University's Centre for Climate Repair. But an international research group wants to see whether it would be possible to take that 30% even higher - they want to artificially encourage the growth of phytoplankton with fake whale feces and push the oceans' capacity for carbon capture to 50%.

Whale poop