Great Barrier Reef

New research has discovered that seaweed is leeching the life right out of the Great Barrier Reef and annihilating coral!

Researchers who were engaged in one of the most extensive water quality and pollution studies on the reef have concluded that seaweed is taking a toll on the $1 Billion a year tourist attraction.

Due to run off in the area, the water quality on the reef is extremely poor. The study discovered the level of nutrients and high turbidity of the water was increasing the occurrence of seaweed and decreasing the biodiversity of corals on the reef.

The areas which seem to be the most effected are the inshore reef to the north of the Burdekin River and the whole of the Wet Tropics zone from Port Douglas to Townsville.

“Seaweeds are a natural part of the reef,” said Dr. Katharina Fabricius, an Australian Institute of Marine Science coral reef ecologist. “But what we don’t want is billions of algae smothering coral.”

“Choking is a loaded term but when seaweed abundance becomes too high there is no space left for coral to grow.”

This study and its results were recently published in the scientific journal Ecological Applications. The data published included data collected from 150 reefs and over 2000 water quality stations located across the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park since the early 1990’s.

Dr. Glenn Death, the principal investigator has said that the seaweed is now covering five times the coral under these poor water conditions.

“The diversity of corals was also affected, decreasing in poor water quality,” he explained.

“Currently, the water on 22 per cent of reefs – about 647 reefs – on the Great Barrier Reef does not meet water quality guidelines.”

The conclusion that the study eludes to is that if the quality of the water was improved in the problem areas, then the seaweed would diminish to one third of what it is now, and the coral species would exhibit a 13 percent increase.

The area that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park covers is approximately 345,000 square kilometers and extends itself for 2,000 kilometers along the northeast coast of Australia.

During a visit to a beach in Saint-Michel-en-Greve, Brittany, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced that the French government will pay to have the beaches of France cleaned from toxic seaweed.

“The state will assume all of its responsibilities and will take charge of the clean-up of the worst affected beaches, where there could be a public health risk,” he said.

Local communities in Brittany have long been urging the government to do something about the toxic green algae that has been flourishing on Brittany beaches for years.

Last month, a rider was rendered unconscious on the Saint-Michel-en-Greve beach and his horse died after slipping on the algae, apparently after inhaling the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide released by the rotting weed. Investigations carried out by France’s National Institute for Environmental Technology and Hazards (Ineris) showed a potentially lethal concentration of the gas on parts of the beach. Some stretches had a concentration of 1,000 hydrogen sulphide parts per million; a concentration which can be deadly in just a few minutes. Ineris recommends providing all cleaning workers with gas detectors and ban the public from the beach until its deemed safe.

The green seaweed thrives when the levels of nitrate is high, which means that excess field fertilizers and manure from local livestock flushed into the ocean by French farmers creates an ideal environment for the algae.

The algae problem is not peculiar to France; the same type of green algae is also turning up along the UK coast line, especially in Dorset, Hampshire, West Sussex, and on the Isle of Wight. According to the UK Environment Agency, the algae are a threat to wildlife along the coast and tighter controls on farming fertiliser and sewage plants will be required to starve the algae of nutrients.