Marphyl - Marine Phytoplankton

Product Notes:

Phytoplankton are microscopic waterborne plants (“phyto” is the Greek word for plant) or plant-like bacteria or single-cell organisms (depending on the type: there are thousands) which draw minerals from the water and produce other nutrients when they rise to the surface (“plankton” means drifter or wanderer) to harness the power of the sun. They're endowed with a green pigment called chlorophyll which absorbs sunlight to generate energy, which enables them to consume carbon dioxide in the air for their own metabolic processes, with the unneeded portions being released as oxygen – the process known as photosynthesis.

We actually owe our lives to them, since it's estimated that they're responsible for about 90% of our planet's original oxygen and at least half of the world's on-going oxygen production, plus they're the base of the aquatic food chain. (E.g., they get consumed by krill, who then get scooped up by whales; or they're consumed first by tiny zoo- (animal) plankton, which then sustain fish like salmon or tuna or sardines, which we in turn eat or derive fish oil from.)

But phytoplankton needn't rest on their laurels in 'merely' sustaining the air we breathe and the sea food we consume: they can also benefit us directly, as a dietary supplement – particularly this marine (as opposed to a freshwater) variety, which is composed almost exclusively of micro-algae in the "diatoms"* family and has virtually none of the blue-green algae called cyanobacteria that's associated with harmful algal blooms in ponds and lakes.

This version is produced in Canada, harvested and packaged in a safe and sustainable way on BC's Vancouver Island. Its producer periodically draws water from the Strait of Georgia, which contains both relatively small numbers of marine phytoplankton to begin with and a multitude of nutrients for them supplied by the run off from rain and winter snow melts, and stores them in what look like giant hot tubs, until they've reproduced enough to harvest. Then they drain all the water back into the ocean, retaining most of the phytoplankton (but returning the equivalent of the amount they 'borrowed' to start with, so as not to deprive the local ecosystem) in a paste, which they then dry slowly in a 50°C oven, to keep the nutrients intact, then grind it into a fine powder.

Rest assured, there are various types of quality control testing along the way (including by The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fisheries and Oceans Canada in the first step and an independent lab in the last), to ensure that the initial water draw was safe to begin with; that there were only very low counts of any potentially toxic species among the up to 80 types being cultivated at any given time (if not, the whole tank gets discarded); that the 'slurry' remaining when the sea water is filtered out is free of three types of shellfish poisoning associated with phytoplankton (again, if not, that whole lot gets discarded); and that the final powder is, as well.

You may be aware that Marphyl also produces another, liquid version of this product called "Soil Enhancer," which is intended to fertilize plants in depleted soil (or in no soil at all, such as hydroponic growing). Although they begin production the same way, they differ markedly at the end. Rather than draining all water out and immediately beginning to dry the marine phytoplankton when it reaches the desired concentration, they retain 10% of the water for the plant fertilizer version and transfer it to a smaller tank and let it ferment for two months, which breaks down the nutrients to make them easier for the plants to take up.

* Fun fact: the cell walls of diatoms are made from silica; if these phytoplankton do not get consumed in the water and end up settling to the bottom, their silica-rich fossilized remains can be harvested as Diatomaceous Earth.