http://www.fastcoexist.com/3024601/heres-an-idea/the-wild-world-of-iceberg-harvesting-scams-schemes-and-startups As climate change speeds up, entrepreneurs are racing to take advantage of rapidly melting icebergs, which dump valuable freshwater into the ocean as they break off from ice caps and glaciers and begin to melt. But that water is so pure that there are not even pollutants in it when measured in the pars per billion. So, tugboat captains have found that they can make more money pulling an iceberg to shore and selling it to consumers than they can by just guiding ships into port. Therefore, tug boat owners are getting into what "Modern Farmer" magazine calls the "cold rush," Extracting water from glacial ice is no easy For one thing, it's sitting in the middle of salty water. So, it has to be taken out of the salty water and broken into manageable sized pieces before being processed. But the size and location of icebergs make that virtually impossible, and certainly not profitable. For another thing, almost every schoolchild knows that the top of the iceberg that you see above water is only the smallest part. Up to 7/8 of it is below water. task. To be harvested, an iceberg needs to be broken into manageable pieces before it can be hoisted aboard. That often means big boats, cranes and nets. Since the early 1800s, schemes to harvest ice have cropped up, often just to die in the planning stages. Icebergs are big. Water is heavy. And the mechanical obstacles relative to the cost to extract are large—particularly if you want to move a large chunk of ice a long way. As Modern Farmer points out, most scientists choose to focus on other water efforts, like rain capture and desalination. But if we get desperate enough, the icebergs will still be waiting (until they melt, at least). ======================== http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ma06/indepth/resources.asp The aptly named Iceberg Vodka is the only vodka in the world made from icebergs, a source of water so pure that contaminants are undetectable, even in parts per quadrillion. Every spring the company harvests tonnes of glacial ice gathered off Newfoundland’s east coast, from the region’s famous Iceberg Alley, and processes the bounty at their facility in St John’s. Founded in 1994, the company began gathering its first icebergs a year later. Hood, who takes part in at least one harvest a year, knows firsthand the physical challenge of trying to haul a three-, four- or five-tonne chunk of hard ice onto a fishing boat. And that’s just a chip off the old ice block, as some icebergs weigh in at an astounding 500 million tonnes. Hood and his crew of fishermen only net "growlers" or "bergie bits," chunks of ice that have fallen off the main body of an iceberg. The ice is crushed and melted, then blended and bottled locally by the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation. The government of Newfoundland, which issues water usage permits, regulates the harvest. Hood says he is unconcerned that red tape might someday complicate the supply of his company’s crucial icy ingredient. As he puts it, Iceberg Alley is essentially death row for icebergs as they melt into the Atlantic Ocean on their southerly path, so the company’s environmental impact is minimal. ===================== http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/PCAS_13/PCAS_13_Lit_Brears_R.pdf Extreme details / who owns an iceberg, water resistance, size & tonnage, etc. ===================== http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/learning/player/lesson12/l12la1.html Interactive "tow it yourself" demonstration, Q&A, etc. The planet’s greatest stores of freshwater lie far away from the arid, heavily populated regions that need it the most. Nearly 70% of all fresh water is locked in the polar ice caps. Just the new icebergs that form every year around Antarctica hold enough water to meet the needs of every person on Earth for several months. Longstanding proposals to tow icebergs to lower latitudes where their valuable water can be harvested have been met with both skepticism and interest. To date, no successful attempts have been made. ======================= http://www.shippingandmarine.co.uk/article-page.php?contentid=16264&issueid=459 Iceberg towing for keeping land locations safe ====================== https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOs-gSVvPWA Video of how it's done.