The Economic Crisis of the Gulf of Riga: An Ecological Deadlock

The Gulf of Riga has shifted from a strategic economic asset to a biological liability. Today, the bay acts as a massive "internal reactor," where decades of accumulated nutrients are fueling an ecological decline that directly impacts the budgets of Latvia and Estonia.

1. Impact on Tourism and the Resort Economy

The "pearls" of the Baltic, such as Jurmala and Pärnu, are facing a systemic threat. Seasonal cyanobacterial blooms—driven by rising temperatures—frequently lead to swimming bans and the pervasive smell of decomposing organic matter.

• Economic Toll: Peak-season tourism revenue can drop by 15–25% during heavy bloom years.
• Reputational Risk: Frequent "red flags" on beaches damage the long-term brand of the region, shifting high-end tourism toward more stable climates.

2. The Fishery Crisis and "Dead Zones"

Eutrophication has led to chronic hypoxia (oxygen depletion) in the deeper layers of the bay.

• Habitat Loss: The expansion of "dead zones" destroys the benthic (bottom) feed base, critical for cod and juvenile fish.
• Industry at Risk: While herring and sprat remain stable for now, the degradation of spawning grounds threatens an industry worth hundreds of millions of euros. Without intervention, rising water temperatures will accelerate the collapse of traditional fish stocks within the next decade.

3. Water Infrastructure and Public Health

The bay’s degradation places a direct financial burden on municipal budgets, particularly in Riga.

• Filtration Costs: The presence of cyanotoxins in the Daugava requires increasingly complex and expensive chemical filtration systems to ensure safe drinking water.
• Infrastructure Strain: Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) during heavy rains continue to bypass treatment plants, creating a cycle of pollution that leads to heightened risks of waterborne diseases and increased healthcare expenditures.

4. The "Internal Loading" Trap

Despite billions of euros invested in wastewater treatment and agricultural runoff limits, the bay is rotting "from within."

• Legacy Phosphorus: Phosphorus accumulated in bottom sediments over the last 50 years is released back into the water column during every hypoxic event.
• The Dead End: Current mitigation strategies are failing to address this "internal load," meaning the bay continues to self-pollinate with nutrients even as external pollution decreases.

Conclusion: The Gulf of Riga is no longer a self-sustaining ecosystem; it is a system in debt. Without shifting focus from "reducing runoff" to "active seabed remediation," the region faces a permanent loss of ecosystem services and a multi-billion euro long-term economic drain.

---

Method of Thermogravitational Destruction of Stratification and Supply of Bottom Layers with Oxygen

Each of the physical processes underlying the proposed method has been independently studied, described in scientific literature, and confirmed by natural observations. The novelty of the method lies in their engineering integration into a single passive system that does not require external energy sources.

The task is not to prove physical principles or repeat frequently conducted experiments, but to solve specific engineering problems that determine the system's operability in field conditions.

1. Problem: Summer Stratification and Hypoxia

Summer thermal stratification is a universal process in lakes and semi-enclosed seas of temperate climates. Solar heating creates a stable thermocline, separating the warm epilimnion from the cold hypolimnion. Typically, in shallow waters, the thermocline forms at a depth of 8–15 m with a temperature difference of 8–10°C between layers.

The thermocline effectively blocks vertical oxygen transport. Anoxia develops in the hypolimnion: bottom sediments transition to a reducing regime, releasing accumulated phosphorus (Mortimer mechanism), hydrogen sulfide, and other reduced compounds. Phosphorus fuels toxic cyanobacterial blooms in the epilimnion. Fish are forced into a thin, overheated surface layer, benthos dies, and the water body's bioproductivity drops catastrophically.

Phosphorus accumulated in bottom sediments over decades continues to be released into the water during every summer stagnation, regardless of measures to limit external runoff. In autumn, when stratification breaks down, mass gas releases and fish kills occur. The only way to break this cycle is to provide oxygen to the bottom layer during the stratification period.

Local impact within a limited zone in an open water body is unstable due to horizontal mixing and rapid erosion of the effect. The minimum impact area must encompass the entire territory of the water body zones located below the thermocline, which at first glance makes the task seem energetically impossible.

Mortimer, C.H. (1941). The exchange of dissolved substances between mud and water in lakes. J. Ecology, 29, 280–329.

2. Physical Mechanism: Chain of Processes

The method of thermogravitational penetration of stratified layers is based on the initiation of a self-sustaining cascade of hydrodynamic processes. The energy source is the potential energy of the stratified water body—energy already stored in the density and temperature differences of the layers, which many times exceeds the thermal contribution of the trigger.

Step 1. Initiation: Cold Plume

A polyethylene film with a white top and black bottom, featuring 0.1 mm micro-perforations, is placed on the water surface. Its dimensions will be selected based on the water body's conditions; we tentatively estimate it at 100–200 feet. The white surface reflects solar radiation, while the surrounding water heats up. The water under the platform remains 1–3°C cooler. The surrounding warm water, being lighter, displaces it downward. A descending density plume is formed.

A natural analog is differential coastal heating: shallow zones heat up more than the deep part of a lake, giving rise to horizontal density currents and convective plumes. Our method reproduces this mechanism artificially in a specified location.

Monismith, S.G., Imberger, J. & Morison, M.L. (1990). Convective motions in the sidearm of a small reservoir. Limnol. Oceanogr., 35(8), 1676–1702.

Step 2. Depression and Radial Spreading

The plume reaches the thermocline at a depth of 8–12 m and creates a depression zone in it. Upon reaching the level of neutral buoyancy, the water spreads radially outward as an intrusion—a horizontal density current. For example, water at ~20°C ends up in the depression zone, while nearby at the same depth, the thermocline water is ~17°C. The density difference (delta rho) of approx. 0.6 kg/m3 creates a horizontal pressure gradient of approx. 6 Pa/m: cold thermocline water flows toward the center at a speed of approx. 10–15 cm/s, while warm water spreads outward.

Akiyama, J. & Stefan, H.G. (1984). Plunging flow into a reservoir: theory. J. Hydraulic Eng., 110(4), 484–499.

Step 3. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and Turbulent Mixing

A velocity shear forms at the boundary of the countercurrents. The Richardson number Ri = (g * dr/r * dz) / (du)^2 at flow velocities du approx. 0.25–0.30 m/s is approx. 0.09 — three times lower than the critical value of 0.25. The flow is unconditionally unstable. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) develops: vortex structures twist and mix the layer interface. KHI is the primary mechanism of vertical turbulent exchange in stratified water bodies — a fact confirmed many times in both laboratory and field observations.

Thorpe, S.A. (1971). Experiments on the instability of stratified shear flows. J. Fluid Mech., 46(2), 299–319. // Saggio, A. & Imberger, J. (1998). Internal wave weather in a stratified lake. Limnol. Oceanogr., 43(8), 1780–1795.

Step 4. Positive Feedback

KHI provides vertical transport of cold water from the thermocline upward within the descending water column. The water under the platform cools down, its density increases, and the descent accelerates. The system reaches a quasi-stationary self-sustaining mode. The platform serves only as a trigger: the further process is powered by the potential energy of the released thermal gradient of the entire water body.

Step 5. Radial Propagation of the Instability Front

The cold thermocline water does not move toward the center in a continuous front, but in jets, creating local mass deficits—caverns—in the thermocline. In each cavern, a shear flow forms again; if the Ri < 0.25 condition is met once more, KHI arises again. The process reproduces itself, spreading radially as a cascading multiplication of shear instability zones, powered by the potential energy of the water body throughout its propagation path.

Heaps, N.S. (1966). Two-dimensional numerical sea models. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 265, 93–137. // Lorenzen, M.W. & Fast, A.W. (1977). A guide to aeration/circulation techniques for lake management. EPA-600/3-77-004.

Step 6. Direct Oxygen Supply

Simultaneously, a portion of the oxygen-saturated vertical surface flow does not spread radially; instead, it sinks and mixes with the deep layer beneath the platform, providing a direct supply of oxygen to the deep layer.

3. Implications for the Ecosystem

• Bottom Layer Oxygen Saturation: Restoration of vertical circulation ensures a slow downward flow of oxygen-saturated water. This transport is also facilitated by convective mixing due to the resulting instability and flows from the platforms. Toxic gases are oxidized directly in the hypolimnion without reaching the surface. The risk of explosive ascent, typical of mechanical mixing, is eliminated due to the gradual nature of the process.
• Phosphorus Lock: Oxygen reaching the bottom sediments converts Fe(II) to Fe(III), which forms insoluble complexes with phosphates. Internal phosphorus loading stops. Algae are deprived of their primary source of nutrients, blooms fade, and water transparency is restored.
• Bioproductivity: Fish gain access to the entire water column. Benthos recovers on the bottom. The summer "bottleneck" — the concentration of the entire population in a thin surface layer, where predators destroy fry and fish die from overheating and disease — is eliminated. The water body's bioproductivity increases dramatically.

4. Preventive Strategy: Impact from May

If platforms are deployed in May, when the thermocline is just forming and has a thickness of 1–2 m, the energy barrier for its destruction is an order of magnitude lower than that of an established summer thermocline. Regular destruction of the young layer prevents it from strengthening. Instead of fighting established stratification, a strategy of preventing its occurrence is implemented — a fundamentally more economical approach.

5. Engineering Challenges

• Perforation: 0.1 mm diameter holes must allow steam to escape from the inside (steam pressure under the film is higher than atmospheric due to the black bottom heating to +50–60°C) and simultaneously prevent water from leaking out. Capillary pressure to hold water in a 0.1 mm hole is ~1.4 kPa — this is physically achievable but requires precise control of the diameter and shape of the holes.
• Adhesion to Water and Storm Stability: The film is held on the surface by surface tension and its own elasticity. The water surface is a reliable foundation: the film follows the wave profile, has no rigid frame. Wind presses the film to the water (Bernoulli effect) rather than tearing it off.
• Anchoring: A floating anchor (parachute) at a depth of 10–15 m slows drift by utilizing the inertia of slower deep-water masses. With typical currents of 2–4 cm/s at a depth of 10 m, the platform will shift 2–6 km/day.
• Winding, Transportation, and Washing: Transportation is carried out only in a rolled state. A specialized small vessel pulls up alongside the edge of the film: several dozen motors wind the film onto floats. Combined washing and duct blowing are performed during the winding process.
• Reversibility: The experimental system is inherently reversible: removing the platform leads to the decay of the initiated processes within the time scales characteristic of the water body.

6. Necessity of Partnership

Conducting a pilot experiment is impossible without the active participation of local authorities, ecologists, and scientists.

• Permits and Water Area: Deployment of platforms requires coordination with maritime authorities, port services, and environmental agencies.
• Business Partnership: Platforms provide fish with shade and act as natural attractors. Fishing under such platforms will be extremely successful. We seek to involve the business community to manage these new opportunities.
• Site Selection: We are considering locations including the Gulf of Riga (Latvia, Estonia), Lake Erie, and the Gulf of Mexico (USA).
• Measurement and Verification: Evaluating the platform's influence requires measuring infrastructure: thermistor chains, ADCPs, and oxygen probes in partnership with local scientific organizations.

Contact: info@savegulfstream.org | +17277390394

Dynamics of oceanic processes

Due to the upwelling of more saline water, estuarine circulation, and tidal exchange, a density anomaly forms in the fjord—a non-stratified layer of water from the surface down to 50 metres, with salinity and temperature similar to those of ocean water at the lower edge of the curtain. During ebb tides, water from the fjord, including that accumulated through the rise of mixed water, exits into the ocean.

Typically, fjords supply highly freshened water that spreads across the surface, a phenomenon well documented in scientific literature and modeling. In this case, the water exiting the fjord is denser than the surface layer of the ocean. This flow creates a density front (Flynn & Linden, 2006). In contact zones with the surrounding fresher water, turbulence and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities develop, and filament detachment occurs (Smyth & Moum, 2012).

Since the surrounding freshened water is typically colder, these filaments, due to the mechanism of double diffusion, cool more quickly than they lose their salinity and sink into the saline layer even to a greater depth (Schmitt, 1994). This results in a local thickening of the saline water layer, the extent of which depends on the volume of a single water discharge from the fjord during ebb tide. For fjords with an area of 100–200 sq km, the volume of the tidal prism is 0.2–0.4 cubic km. If this water is spread over the surface of the stratified layer in the ocean at a depth of 50–70 metres as a lens 10 metres thick, it forms a spot 5–7 kilometres in diameter, even without considering the entrainment of less saline surface water.

This size corresponds to the Rossby radius in the Labrador Sea (Rieck et al., 2019), which facilitates the formation of an anticyclonic vortex through baroclinic instability (Feng et al., 2021). Importantly, the saline lens does not rotate in isolation within its 10-metre thickness but interacts hydraulically with the underlying homogeneous saline layer of the ocean. The surface disturbance generates a horizontal pressure gradient that extends downward through the entire homogeneous layer (Yankovsky et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2024). During barotropization, baroclinic energy converts into barotropic energy, allowing the vortex to develop a vertically coherent structure (Meunier et al., 2023). The upper boundary of the saline layer is likely situated beneath the fresh layer, at approximately 50 metres depth. The lower boundary is defined by the depth of the involved column of homogeneous water. Rotation elevates the centre of the 5–7 kilometre diameter lens, reducing its separation from the surface to about 20–30 metres, which facilitates wave mixing.

The subsurface anticyclonic vortex also generates Ekman convergence in the overlying freshwater layer through viscous coupling at the interface (McGillicuddy, 2016). Fresh water is drawn horizontally toward the vortex center and undergoes downwelling, where it mixes with the saline water of the vortex core. This process gradually thins and destabilizes the surface freshwater cap, creating conditions favorable for deep winter convection and breakthrough of the convective vortex to the surface, where its cooling rate and internal convection become maximal.

Furthermore, the repeated discharge of saline water from the fjord may cause the formation of closely spaced vortices with similar density and size. At a certain distance between vortex centers, a vortex merger occurs — a process in which two co-rotating vortices combine into a larger, more stable vortex (Griffiths & Hopfinger, 2018; Le Vu et al., 2018). Regarding a large-scale project involving 20 fjords, we consider the possibility of 40 such vortices forming each day, although not all will necessarily be stable.

Of course, not every ebb tide will lead to the formation of a new vortex, and this process itself requires multiple validations both through models and in field conditions. However, the aim of this manuscript is to specifically outline the sequence of scientifically supported effects that require thorough verification.

In effect, the introduction of saline water in the manner described promotes the formation of a mesoscale vortex, salinization of the surface layer, a drop in temperature at the vortex core, upwelling of saline waters, and bending of isopycnals. It can also be suggested that there is a weakening of vertical stratification and a reduction in the influence of freshwater runoff. All these factors align with the well-known phenomenon of preconditioning in the Labrador Sea, which is a crucial factor for initiating deep convection.

The successful implementation of this project, which requires independent verification, could help restart deep convection in the Labrador Sea and contribute to stabilising and accelerating the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. This research does not aim to provide a quantitative description or assess the project's readiness for the proposed approach. Its goal is to identify a physically grounded yet under-researched class of mechanisms related to controlling the regime of freshwater export from fjords and to promote discussion on their potential experimental validation. Given the possible consequences of AMOC degradation, even small-scale field experiments in individual fjords appear justified from both scientific and practical viewpoints.

About us

Save Gulfstream is an initiative dedicated to the research and practical application of technologies that leverage natural atmospheric and aquatic differentials to trigger controlled processes based on the release of stored energy.

We are open to cooperating with any scientific, governmental, or environmental organizations. If you are interested, please contact info@savegulfstream.org.

ERIE RESTORATION

Big Problem: Why the Region is Losing Billions

Lake Erie has ceased to be an economic asset. Today, it is a giant biological reactor working against the states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and the province of Ontario.

• Asset Devaluation: Waterfront property in seasonal algae bloom zones loses 15–25% of market value. The smell of rotting algae and hydrogen sulfide in summer (peak beach season) turns the "Golden Mile" into an exclusion zone.
• Fishery Collapse: Erie is the world capital of walleye. But annual anoxia (lack of oxygen) in the Central Basin destroys bottom feed and displaces fish. If juveniles die in dead zones, the $1.5 billion industry may disappear within a decade (and rising temperatures favor this scenario).
• Water Supply Collapse: Municipal budgets are drained by the need to filter cyanobacterial toxins. The cost of clean water for the population rises in direct proportion to the lake's degradation. Additionally, there is always the risk of accidents, disease threats, and other well-known problems.
• Ineffectiveness of Current Measures: The government spends billions on limiting runoff, but the lake is rotting "from within." Phosphorus accumulated in bottom sediments returns to the water with every hypoxic event. This is a dead end.

Method of Thermogravitational Destruction of Stratification and Supply of Bottom Layers with Oxygen

Each of the physical processes underlying the proposed method has been independently studied, described in scientific literature, and confirmed by natural observations. The novelty of the method lies in their engineering integration into a single passive system that does not require external energy sources.

The task is not to prove physical principles or repeat frequently conducted experiments, but to solve specific engineering problems that determine the system's operability in field conditions.

1. Problem: Summer Stratification and Hypoxia

Summer thermal stratification is a universal process in lakes and semi-enclosed seas of temperate climates. Solar heating creates a stable thermocline, separating the warm epilimnion from the cold hypolimnion. Typically, in shallow waters, the thermocline forms at a depth of 8–15 m with a temperature difference of 8–10°C between layers.

The thermocline effectively blocks vertical oxygen transport. Anoxia develops in the hypolimnion: bottom sediments transition to a reducing regime, releasing accumulated phosphorus (Mortimer mechanism), hydrogen sulfide, and other reduced compounds. Phosphorus fuels toxic cyanobacterial blooms in the epilimnion. Fish are forced into a thin, overheated surface layer, benthos dies, and the water body's bioproductivity drops catastrophically.

Phosphorus accumulated in bottom sediments over decades continues to be released into the water during every summer stagnation, regardless of measures to limit external runoff. In autumn, when stratification breaks down, mass gas releases and fish kills occur. The only way to break this cycle is to provide oxygen to the bottom layer during the stratification period.

Local impact within a limited zone in an open water body is unstable due to horizontal mixing and rapid erosion of the effect. The minimum impact area must encompass the entire territory of the water body zones located below the thermocline, which at first glance makes the task seem energetically impossible.

Mortimer, C.H. (1941). The exchange of dissolved substances between mud and water in lakes. J. Ecology, 29, 280–329.

2. Physical Mechanism: Chain of Processes

The method of thermogravitational penetration of stratified layers is based on the initiation of a self-sustaining cascade of hydrodynamic processes. The energy source is the potential energy of the stratified water body—energy already stored in the density and temperature differences of the layers, which many times exceeds the thermal contribution of the trigger.

Step 1. Initiation: Cold Plume

A polyethylene film with a white top and black bottom, featuring 0.1 mm micro-perforations, is placed on the water surface. Its dimensions will be selected based on the water body's conditions; we tentatively estimate it at 100–200 feet. The white surface reflects solar radiation, while the surrounding water heats up. The water under the platform remains 1–3°C cooler. The surrounding warm water, being lighter, displaces it downward. A descending density plume is formed.

A natural analog is differential coastal heating: shallow zones heat up more than the deep part of a lake, giving rise to horizontal density currents and convective plumes. Our method reproduces this mechanism artificially in a specified location.

Monismith, S.G., Imberger, J. & Morison, M.L. (1990). Convective motions in the sidearm of a small reservoir. Limnol. Oceanogr., 35(8), 1676–1702.

Step 2. Depression and Radial Spreading

The plume reaches the thermocline at a depth of 8–12 m and creates a depression zone in it. Upon reaching the level of neutral buoyancy, the water spreads radially outward as an intrusion—a horizontal density current. For example, water at ~20°C ends up in the depression zone, while nearby at the same depth, the thermocline water is ~17°C. The density difference (delta rho) of approx. 0.6 kg/m3 creates a horizontal pressure gradient of approx. 6 Pa/m: cold thermocline water flows toward the center at a speed of approx. 10–15 cm/s, while warm water spreads outward.

Akiyama, J. & Stefan, H.G. (1984). Plunging flow into a reservoir: theory. J. Hydraulic Eng., 110(4), 484–499.

Step 3. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and Turbulent Mixing

A velocity shear forms at the boundary of the countercurrents. The Richardson number Ri = (g * dr/r * dz) / (du)^2 at flow velocities du approx. 0.25–0.30 m/s is approx. 0.09 — three times lower than the critical value of 0.25. The flow is unconditionally unstable. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) develops: vortex structures twist and mix the layer interface. KHI is the primary mechanism of vertical turbulent exchange in stratified water bodies — a fact confirmed many times in both laboratory and field observations.

Thorpe, S.A. (1971). Experiments on the instability of stratified shear flows. J. Fluid Mech., 46(2), 299–319. // Saggio, A. & Imberger, J. (1998). Internal wave weather in a stratified lake. Limnol. Oceanogr., 43(8), 1780–1795.

Step 4. Positive Feedback

KHI provides vertical transport of cold water from the thermocline upward within the descending water column. The water under the platform cools down, its density increases, and the descent accelerates. The system reaches a quasi-stationary self-sustaining mode. The platform serves only as a trigger: the further process is powered by the potential energy of the released thermal gradient of the entire water body.

Step 5. Radial Propagation of the Instability Front

The cold thermocline water does not move toward the center in a continuous front, but in jets, creating local mass deficits—caverns—in the thermocline. In each cavern, a shear flow forms again; if the Ri < 0.25 condition is met once more, KHI arises again. The process reproduces itself, spreading radially as a cascading multiplication of shear instability zones, powered by the potential energy of the water body throughout its propagation path.

Heaps, N.S. (1966). Two-dimensional numerical sea models. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 265, 93–137. // Lorenzen, M.W. & Fast, A.W. (1977). A guide to aeration/circulation techniques for lake management. EPA-600/3-77-004.

Step 6. Direct Oxygen Supply

Simultaneously, a portion of the oxygen-saturated vertical surface flow does not spread radially; instead, it sinks and mixes with the deep layer beneath the platform, providing a direct supply of oxygen to the deep layer.

3. Implications for the Ecosystem

• Bottom Layer Oxygen Saturation: Restoration of vertical circulation ensures a slow downward flow of oxygen-saturated water. This transport is also facilitated by convective mixing due to the resulting instability and flows from the platforms. Toxic gases are oxidized directly in the hypolimnion without reaching the surface. The risk of explosive ascent, typical of mechanical mixing, is eliminated due to the gradual nature of the process.
• Phosphorus Lock: Oxygen reaching the bottom sediments converts Fe(II) to Fe(III), which forms insoluble complexes with phosphates. Internal phosphorus loading stops. Algae are deprived of their primary source of nutrients, blooms fade, and water transparency is restored.
• Bioproductivity: Fish gain access to the entire water column. Benthos recovers on the bottom. The summer "bottleneck" — the concentration of the entire population in a thin surface layer, where predators destroy fry and fish die from overheating and disease — is eliminated. The water body's bioproductivity increases dramatically.

4. Preventive Strategy: Impact from May

If platforms are deployed in May, when the thermocline is just forming and has a thickness of 1–2 m, the energy barrier for its destruction is an order of magnitude lower than that of an established summer thermocline. Regular destruction of the young layer prevents it from strengthening. Instead of fighting established stratification, a strategy of preventing its occurrence is implemented — a fundamentally more economical approach.

5. Engineering Challenges

• Perforation: 0.1 mm diameter holes must allow steam to escape from the inside (steam pressure under the film is higher than atmospheric due to the black bottom heating to +50–60°C) and simultaneously prevent water from leaking out. Capillary pressure to hold water in a 0.1 mm hole is ~1.4 kPa — this is physically achievable but requires precise control of the diameter and shape of the holes.
• Adhesion to Water and Storm Stability: The film is held on the surface by surface tension and its own elasticity. The water surface is a reliable foundation: the film follows the wave profile, has no rigid frame. Wind presses the film to the water (Bernoulli effect) rather than tearing it off.
• Anchoring: A floating anchor (parachute) at a depth of 10–15 m slows drift by utilizing the inertia of slower deep-water masses. With typical currents of 2–4 cm/s at a depth of 10 m, the platform will shift 2–6 km/day.
• Winding, Transportation, and Washing: Transportation is carried out only in a rolled state. A specialized small vessel pulls up alongside the edge of the film: several dozen motors wind the film onto floats. Combined washing and duct blowing are performed during the winding process.
• Reversibility: The experimental system is inherently reversible: removing the platform leads to the decay of the initiated processes within the time scales characteristic of the water body.

6. Necessity of Partnership

Conducting a pilot experiment is impossible without the active participation of local authorities, ecologists, and scientists.

• Permits and Water Area: Deployment of platforms requires coordination with maritime authorities, port services, and environmental agencies.
• Business Partnership: Platforms provide fish with shade and act as natural attractors. Fishing under such platforms will be extremely successful. We seek to involve the business community to manage these new opportunities.
• Site Selection: We are considering locations including the Gulf of Riga (Latvia, Estonia), Lake Erie, and the Gulf of Mexico (USA).
• Measurement and Verification: Evaluating the platform's influence requires measuring infrastructure: thermistor chains, ADCPs, and oxygen probes in partnership with local scientific organizations.

Contact: info@savegulfstream.org | +17277390394

New Life of Chesapeake

New Life of Chesapeake: Elimination of Deep-Water Hypoxia

Systemic Crisis: Why the Region is Losing Billions

The Chesapeake Bay is in a state of ecological bankruptcy. Decades of traditional restoration efforts have failed to stop a degradation process that has now become a massive financial burden for Maryland and Virginia.

• Erosion of Waterfront Capitalization: Summer anoxia and the resulting emission of toxic gases (hydrogen sulfide) are devaluing the region's land bank. Waterfront assets losing up to 25% of their market value due to the environmental backdrop are dragging down state tax revenues. This represents a loss of billions in unrealized real estate equity.
• Thermal Squeeze and Benthic Collapse: Rising temperatures combined with expanding dead zones create a "scissor effect" for marine life. The deep-water channels, which should serve as thermal refuges and foraging grounds for Blue Crabs and Striped Bass, are becoming exclusion zones. This is dismantling the foundation of a $2 billion seafood industry, effectively turning the Bay into a biological desert.
• Sediment Inertia (Internal Loading): Current strategies focusing solely on runoff ignore the "time bomb" on the Bay floor. Millions of tons of legacy phosphorus trapped in sediments re-trigger algae bloom cycles every season, regardless of land-based interventions. Without active management of the bottom layers, further investment in runoff control is a sunk cost.
• Degradation of the Recreational Brand: The Chesapeake is losing its status as a premier global destination for yachting and tourism. Frequent mass fish kills and toxic "red tides" have turned investments in tourism infrastructure into high-risk ventures, driving capital away to more stable coastal regions.

Method of Thermogravitational Destruction of Stratification and Supply of Bottom Layers with Oxygen

Each of the physical processes underlying the proposed method has been independently studied, described in scientific literature, and confirmed by natural observations. The novelty of the method lies in their engineering integration into a single passive system that does not require external energy sources.

The task is not to prove physical principles or repeat frequently conducted experiments, but to solve specific engineering problems that determine the system's operability in field conditions.

1. Problem: Summer Stratification and Hypoxia

Summer thermal stratification is a universal process in lakes and semi-enclosed seas of temperate climates. Solar heating creates a stable thermocline, separating the warm epilimnion from the cold hypolimnion. Typically, in shallow waters, the thermocline forms at a depth of 8–15 m with a temperature difference of 8–10°C between layers.

The thermocline effectively blocks vertical oxygen transport. Anoxia develops in the hypolimnion: bottom sediments transition to a reducing regime, releasing accumulated phosphorus (Mortimer mechanism), hydrogen sulfide, and other reduced compounds. Phosphorus fuels toxic cyanobacterial blooms in the epilimnion. Fish are forced into a thin, overheated surface layer, benthos dies, and the water body's bioproductivity drops catastrophically.

Phosphorus accumulated in bottom sediments over decades continues to be released into the water during every summer stagnation, regardless of measures to limit external runoff. In autumn, when stratification breaks down, mass gas releases and fish kills occur. The only way to break this cycle is to provide oxygen to the bottom layer during the stratification period.

Local impact within a limited zone in an open water body is unstable due to horizontal mixing and rapid erosion of the effect. The minimum impact area must encompass the entire territory of the water body zones located below the thermocline, which at first glance makes the task seem energetically impossible.

Mortimer, C.H. (1941). The exchange of dissolved substances between mud and water in lakes. J. Ecology, 29, 280–329.

2. Physical Mechanism: Chain of Processes

The method of thermogravitational penetration of stratified layers is based on the initiation of a self-sustaining cascade of hydrodynamic processes. The energy source is the potential energy of the stratified water body—energy already stored in the density and temperature differences of the layers, which many times exceeds the thermal contribution of the trigger.

Step 1. Initiation: Cold Plume

A polyethylene film with a white top and black bottom, featuring 0.1 mm micro-perforations, is placed on the water surface. Its dimensions will be selected based on the water body's conditions; we tentatively estimate it at 100–200 feet. The white surface reflects solar radiation, while the surrounding water heats up. The water under the platform remains 1–3°C cooler. The surrounding warm water, being lighter, displaces it downward. A descending density plume is formed.

A natural analog is differential coastal heating: shallow zones heat up more than the deep part of a lake, giving rise to horizontal density currents and convective plumes. Our method reproduces this mechanism artificially in a specified location.

Monismith, S.G., Imberger, J. & Morison, M.L. (1990). Convective motions in the sidearm of a small reservoir. Limnol. Oceanogr., 35(8), 1676–1702.

Step 2. Depression and Radial Spreading

The plume reaches the thermocline at a depth of 8–12 m and creates a depression zone in it. Upon reaching the level of neutral buoyancy, the water spreads radially outward as an intrusion—a horizontal density current. For example, water at ~20°C ends up in the depression zone, while nearby at the same depth, the thermocline water is ~17°C. The density difference (delta rho) of approx. 0.6 kg/m3 creates a horizontal pressure gradient of approx. 6 Pa/m: cold thermocline water flows toward the center at a speed of approx. 10–15 cm/s, while warm water spreads outward.

Akiyama, J. & Stefan, H.G. (1984). Plunging flow into a reservoir: theory. J. Hydraulic Eng., 110(4), 484–499.

Step 3. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and Turbulent Mixing

A velocity shear forms at the boundary of the countercurrents. The Richardson number Ri = (g * dr/r * dz) / (du)^2 at flow velocities du approx. 0.25–0.30 m/s is approx. 0.09 — three times lower than the critical value of 0.25. The flow is unconditionally unstable. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) develops: vortex structures twist and mix the layer interface. KHI is the primary mechanism of vertical turbulent exchange in stratified water bodies — a fact confirmed many times in both laboratory and field observations.

Thorpe, S.A. (1971). Experiments on the instability of stratified shear flows. J. Fluid Mech., 46(2), 299–319. // Saggio, A. & Imberger, J. (1998). Internal wave weather in a stratified lake. Limnol. Oceanogr., 43(8), 1780–1795.

Step 4. Positive Feedback

KHI provides vertical transport of cold water from the thermocline upward within the descending water column. The water under the platform cools down, its density increases, and the descent accelerates. The system reaches a quasi-stationary self-sustaining mode. The platform serves only as a trigger: the further process is powered by the potential energy of the released thermal gradient of the entire water body.

Step 5. Radial Propagation of the Instability Front

The cold thermocline water does not move toward the center in a continuous front, but in jets, creating local mass deficits—caverns—in the thermocline. In each cavern, a shear flow forms again; if the Ri < 0.25 condition is met once more, KHI arises again. The process reproduces itself, spreading radially as a cascading multiplication of shear instability zones, powered by the potential energy of the water body throughout its propagation path.

Heaps, N.S. (1966). Two-dimensional numerical sea models. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 265, 93–137. // Lorenzen, M.W. & Fast, A.W. (1977). A guide to aeration/circulation techniques for lake management. EPA-600/3-77-004.

Step 6. Direct Oxygen Supply

Simultaneously, a portion of the oxygen-saturated vertical surface flow does not spread radially; instead, it sinks and mixes with the deep layer beneath the platform, providing a direct supply of oxygen to the deep layer.

3. Implications for the Ecosystem

• Bottom Layer Oxygen Saturation: Restoration of vertical circulation ensures a slow downward flow of oxygen-saturated water. This transport is also facilitated by convective mixing due to the resulting instability and flows from the platforms. Toxic gases are oxidized directly in the hypolimnion without reaching the surface. The risk of explosive ascent, typical of mechanical mixing, is eliminated due to the gradual nature of the process.
• Phosphorus Lock: Oxygen reaching the bottom sediments converts Fe(II) to Fe(III), which forms insoluble complexes with phosphates. Internal phosphorus loading stops. Algae are deprived of their primary source of nutrients, blooms fade, and water transparency is restored.
• Bioproductivity: Fish gain access to the entire water column. Benthos recovers on the bottom. The summer "bottleneck" — the concentration of the entire population in a thin surface layer, where predators destroy fry and fish die from overheating and disease — is eliminated. The water body's bioproductivity increases dramatically.

4. Preventive Strategy: Impact from May

If platforms are deployed in May, when the thermocline is just forming and has a thickness of 1–2 m, the energy barrier for its destruction is an order of magnitude lower than that of an established summer thermocline. Regular destruction of the young layer prevents it from strengthening. Instead of fighting established stratification, a strategy of preventing its occurrence is implemented — a fundamentally more economical approach.

5. Engineering Challenges

• Perforation: 0.1 mm diameter holes must allow steam to escape from the inside (steam pressure under the film is higher than atmospheric due to the black bottom heating to +50–60°C) and simultaneously prevent water from leaking out. Capillary pressure to hold water in a 0.1 mm hole is ~1.4 kPa — this is physically achievable but requires precise control of the diameter and shape of the holes.
• Adhesion to Water and Storm Stability: The film is held on the surface by surface tension and its own elasticity. The water surface is a reliable foundation: the film follows the wave profile, has no rigid frame. Wind presses the film to the water (Bernoulli effect) rather than tearing it off.
• Anchoring: A floating anchor (parachute) at a depth of 10–15 m slows drift by utilizing the inertia of slower deep-water masses. With typical currents of 2–4 cm/s at a depth of 10 m, the platform will shift 2–6 km/day.
• Winding, Transportation, and Washing: Transportation is carried out only in a rolled state. A specialized small vessel pulls up alongside the edge of the film: several dozen motors wind the film onto floats. Combined washing and duct blowing are performed during the winding process.
• Reversibility: The experimental system is inherently reversible: removing the platform leads to the decay of the initiated processes within the time scales characteristic of the water body.

6. Necessity of Partnership

Conducting a pilot experiment is impossible without the active participation of local authorities, ecologists, and scientists.

• Permits and Water Area: Deployment of platforms requires coordination with maritime authorities, port services, and environmental agencies.
• Business Partnership: Platforms provide fish with shade and act as natural attractors. Fishing under such platforms will be extremely successful. We seek to involve the business community to manage these new opportunities.
• Site Selection: We are considering locations including the Gulf of Riga (Latvia, Estonia), Lake Erie, and the Gulf of Mexico (USA).
• Measurement and Verification: Evaluating the platform's influence requires measuring infrastructure: thermistor chains, ADCPs, and oxygen probes in partnership with local scientific organizations.

Contact: info@savegulfstream.org | +17277390394