Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield said yesterday that Government was taking a "very precautionary approach" to plans by a US company to dump iron ore in the sea in a money-making bid to combat global warming.

She spoke out after Weatherbird II, a research ship owned by the for-profit organisation Planktos, sailed into St. George's at the weekend to pick up some equipment from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS).

The 115-foot vessel was bought a year ago from BIOS for a reported $1.5 million and is due to be used for an ocean iron fertilisation project which has caused controversy around the world.

Planktos told The Royal Gazette on Tuesday that it had no plans to carry out its experiments anywhere near the Island but environmental groups said they were concerned by its presence.

Ms Butterfield said Planktos had not approached the Ministry of the Environment asking to carry out any activities in Bermuda's territorial waters.

But she said the Ministry was familiar with Planktos and its ship, which is a private vessel. "The Ministry of the Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce is very much aware of the stated objectives of Planktos," said Ms Butterfield.

"We are also aware that their plan to promote plankton growth by fertilising the ocean is both experimental and controversial. As a result, we are taking a very precautionary approach."

Ms Butterfield said that if Planktos wished to carry out any ocean fertilisation projects in Bermuda's waters, it would need a permit from her Ministry, under the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution.

Planktos' planned methods of depositing iron particles in the sea in the hope of producing carbon dioxide-absorbing plankton blooms and thereby reducing one of the gases responsible for global warming are still considered "unproven" by the United Nations panel on climate change.