A research vessel in the Gulf of Maine carried out an unusual experiment in August 2025, releasing 16,500 gallons of diluted sodium hydroxide (lye) into the ocean while a plume of bright pink dye spread across the water. Although the vivid pink patch appeared alarming, scientists said it was deliberately used to track the movement of treated seawater during the first federally permitted open-water ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) experiment in the United States.
As reported by TOI, the trial was led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as part of the LOC-NESS (Locking Ocean Carbon in the Northeast Shelf and Slope) project. According to the researchers, the aim was to determine whether increasing the ocean's alkalinity could help it absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while reducing the effects of ocean acidification. The experiment was designed to collect real-world data on how the process behaves outside laboratory conditions.
