- Toxic algae have formed a vast "red tide" off
the coast of China, blanketing an area of ocean larger than 1.3 million
football fields.
-
- The vast bloom is just the latest manifestation of what
the UN has identified as the greatest emerging threat to the health of
the seas.
-
- Yesterday, the Chinese government warned people not to
eat fish from the area of the bloom in the East China Sea, off the island
of Zhoushan Dao, south of Shanghai. Pan Yue, vice-minister at the State
Environmental Protection Administration, said: "It might cause damage
to people because the red tide contains paralysing toxins."
-
- He added: "The phenomenon, though colourful in appearance,
is very dangerous because it can lead to the death of aquatic life and
therefore cause damage to the fishing industry."
-
- Red tides - caused by algae feeding on pollution from
sewage, fertiliser, car emissions and industrial waste - develop astonishingly
fast. Each alga can replicate itself a million times in just two to three
weeks until they cover the surface of the sea.
-
- They can suffocate all life, turning parts of the oceans
into dead zones.
-
- This spring, a report by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) revealed the number of such zones in the world seas has
been doubling every 10 years, as pollution has increased.
-
- Nearly 150 have now been identified - ranging from a
third of a square mile to nearly 50,000 square miles. One of the biggest
- the size of Scotland - is in the Gulf of Mexico, largely caused by pollution
washing down the Mississippi river. Others are in Chesapeake Bay, near
Washington, the Black Sea, the Baltic and the northern Adriatic.
-
- UNEP says that the growth of these dead zones is becoming
an even greater menace to the life of the sea than the overexploitation
which is affecting three-quarters of the world's fisheries.
-
- Dr Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's executive director, says: "Humankind
is engaged in a gigantic global experiment as a result of the inefficient
and often overuse of fertilisers, the discharge of untreated sewage and
the ever-rising emissions from vehicles and factories. "Unless urgent
action is taken to tackle the sources of the problem, it is likely to escalate
rapidly."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=521726
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