Summary/Abstract
Ocean iron fertilization (OIF) has been a subject of scientific research since the 1980s. The primary international legal instruments regulating OIF are the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London Convention or LC) and the 1996 Protocol to that Convention (London Protocol or LP). To guide regulation of research activities, under the LC and LP, the Assessment Framework was developed.
To demonstrate how domestic regulators might use the Assessment Framework, this paper explores its application to recently proposed OIF field trials advanced by the Exploring Ocean Iron Solutions (ExOIS) research consortium. In this paper, the ExOIS field trials are presented as a “case study” to illustrate how the Assessment Framework is likely to be applied in real-world setting.