Spain Algae Invasion Triggers 'Environmental Nightmare'

As tourists finally return to Spain's beaches this summer, they may be facing an unpleasant surprise: patches of thick brown algae that have washed up on the golden sands of its most popular resorts. Metric tons of   Rugulopteryx okamurae — an alga believed to come from Asia in the ballast tanks of cargo ships — lie on the beaches of resorts in southern Spain in an invasion which threatens the already struggling tourism industry, upsets marine biodiversity and has left local fishermen with near-empty nets. The otherwise picturesque landscape at Valdevaqueros Beach, Tarifa, after the invasive seaweed washes ashore. (Alfonso Beato/VOA)Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the same brown sludge has appeared on the other side of the Straights of Gibraltar on the coast of northern Morocco. With the same texture as seaweed, it can cause mild irritation to the skin if touched during swimming, and the plant's rotting remains are an eyesore for tourists. Below the waves, this new arrival to this part of the Mediterranean stops local algae from developing and drives away fish and mollusks that cannot feed on this inedible plant. Environmental nightmare “It is aggressively taking over the entire sea floor of the Straits of Gibraltar because the algae take up 50% of the space between ten and 20 meters below the surface,” said Francisco Ruíz Giraldez, the mayor of Tarifa, a popular holiday destination for kite surfers, in an interview with VOA. “It is an environmental nightmare because it invades the habitat of local vegetation and kills it off. It causes a problem for the fishermen because it gets caught up in their nets and they cannot catch anything.” Fishing nets have to be discarded after coming back tangled in the invasive sea algae, with few fish. (Alfonso Beato/VOA)Ruíz Giraldez, who is also a biologist, added: “This is a big problem for tourism as metric tons of dead algae leave a nasty brown sta