Killing algae in a snap appearing on six French beaches

Last summer, six beaches in Brittany, France had to close because of a large number of extremely dangerous marine algae accumulated.

The amount of seaweed causes a waste disposal center, where they are dried and decomposed, to close because of the unpleasant smell of algae. Locals also complain that the smell of algae is so stinking that they lose sleep all night.

The cause for the growth of deadly algae

Over the past decades, deadly amounts of blue-green algae have accumulated in shallow bays along the northwestern coast of France's Brittany region. Many environmental activists believe that the abnormal proliferation of a large amount of this green algae is related to the amount of nitrate used in fertilizers and animal waste from the region's livestock industry that is dumped directly through the animals. river and from there to the sea. When this group of algae decomposes, the bags of deadly toxic gas will be trapped under the thick layer of algae above. The amount of green algae especially grows in shallow water bays, where sunlight reaches.

A woman looks out at rows of buildings declared unreachable because of toxic algae on the beach of Valais, in Saint-Brieuc.

In the post-war period, the Brittany region became the leading center of the French farming and farming industry. Although accounting for only a small part of France's total agricultural land, Brittany produces more than half of its agricultural products, including eggs, milk and meat. This region even has more breeding pigs than the population. Concerns about the growth of marine algae because nitrates chemicals from intensive farming first appeared in 1971 century ago.

Consequences from intensive farming and dumping waste into rivers and the sea

The frustration with the seaweed problem is higher when the family of a man who died in the stinking algae mud at the mouth of the Gouessant River in 2016 officially sued the local government in June 2019. The family claimed that the authorities had relinquished their responsibilities without specific efforts to prevent the invasion of the algae and did not warn their danger to the people.

Jean-Rene Auffray (50 years) - a healthy man and always spend the afternoon jogging the road from his house on the edge of Hillion beach. Late in the afternoon one day in 2016, when Auffray's dog returned alone, his wife and children immediately searched. The place where they found him is also the place five years earlier the death of more than 30 wild boars in the swampy algae. Auffray's body was not immediately subject to forensic examination until several weeks later, causing the poison gas to cause his death to be undetermined.

Last year, the death of another man, Thierry Morfoisse, was also ruled by the court as an occupational accident involving seaweed. Morfoisse abruptly died while driving a truck carrying algae collected from a beach in 2009. Thierry Burlot, Brittany Regional Council Vice President in charge of environmental issues, said government initiatives were reduced. Minimize the amount of nitrate that has been in the region's water system in recent years, with the amount of nitrate at Saint-Brieuc Bay in particular having been more than halved.

Sylvain Ballu, a scientist at the local center that monitors the green algae issue of Ceva, said that despite the positive signs of declining nitrate levels, the Government still needs to continue to drastically reduce this nitrate level.

'Brittany has a coastline stretching for nearly 2,700km, with 5% of this area being affected by seaweed. 15 years ago, at a low time, we collected 30,000 tons of algae every year from some beaches in Côtes d'Armour. Now, the number is 10,000 tons a year . '.

1. There are several species of toxic microalgae?
2. Toxic algae attacked the US coast