Baltic life at risk as algae grow

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135918&sectionid=3510212

A blue-green algae mass at about the size of Germany now covers huge parts of the Baltic Sea, putting the marine habitat at risk, a satellite view of the sea shows.

The huge carpet of foul-smelling algae has grown rapidly due to record summer heat, the dumping of farm fertilizers and calm sea, threatening tourism and the marine habitat in the process.

The size of the blue-green algae is so huge that it can be compared with the size of Germany. It is estimated that the weed covers an area as large as 377,000 sq km. In fact, the affected area extends from Finland to the southern coast of Sweden, surrounding the Danish island of Bornholm.

As an affected country, scientists from the German division the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature located in Hamburg are warning about the damaging effects of the algae.

"These huge algae carpets hit the marine environment most…They kill plants and encourage the spread of dead zones on the sea bed which have no oxygen left in them," WWF project spokesman Jochen Lamp said.

The foul weed often smells like rotten eggs. They are not only dangerous to the sea habitat as they deprive them off oxygen, but also are harmful to humans because they spread cynano-bacteria which can generate skin rashes as well as other allergic symptoms eventually damaging people's liver.

According to doctors, drinking water contaminated by the weed 'can cause severe diarrhea,' the Independent reported.

Considered the harshest expansion of algae in the Baltic Sea since 2005, the weed explosion has been being rapidly expanding in size.

The cause of the expansion varies from record temperatures of up to 38 C, to a lack of strong winds and also a no wave in the sea as they all help to break up algae carpets.

Experts believe that the blue-green algae is helped by over-fertilization of farmland that leads to the wash up of large quantities of phosphorous and nitrogen off the soil and later dumped into the Baltic Sea via rivers.

"Over-fertilization is the biggest environmental problem facing the Baltic; it is the driving force behind the spread of dead zones on the sea bed," Lamp said.

Germany, which had to close its many Baltic beaches in 2001, has already warned swimmers not to go into the water due to its contaminated water.