China battles algae in Olympics sailing venue
7/7/2008 16:58
East China's coastal city Qingdao has gone all out to clean up invading
algae to assure smooth going for the Olympic sailing event, achieving notable
results, local officials said.
Since late June, more than 10,000 soldiers and
civilians have gone to sea and worked along the coast each day to weed out the
blooming algae, which has swelled to stretches of up to a few kilometers long,
said Wang Shulian, deputy director of the Qingdao Oceanic and Fishery
Department.
Qingdao, a scenic port about 550 km southeast of Beijing and
known for Tsingtao beer, is a co-host city for the Games. Sailing events will be
held in Qingdao from Aug. 9-23.
Since late May, the coast has been coated
with a vast algae bloom. A bright green covering of algae can be seen smothering
beaches and extending out several hundred meters.
The algae, enteromorpha
prolifera, was first detected on May 31off Dagong Island, well out to sea. The
current and winds were moving the algae patches toward the coast.
As of June
29, the algae had affected 13,000 sq km, 400 of which were covered by the
outbreak.
By July 2, about 180,000 tons of algae had been removed from the
water and seashore. The algae covered only 48.8 sq km of water.
"We have
stressed to all those devoted to this campaign that priority should be given to
the Olympic venue and we expect to eliminate all these algae before July 15,"
said Yuan Zhiping, assistant to the chairman of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing
Committee.
UNSIGHTLY BUT NOT HARMFUL
The algae is not harmful by itself.
It absorbs carbon dioxide and actually cleans the water.
"The algae is of
various types. It will bloom if the temperature and salinity are right," said
Wang.
To quickly eliminate the algae, which could interfere with the Olympic
sailing event, the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Department
earmarked 2 million yuan (US$291,622) to track its source and motion within 15
to 20 days.
The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) monitored the course of
the algae into the Olympic venue with tracking bottles. Experts dropped 80
bottles in the water around the venue after the bloom was spotted.
They
concluded that some of the algae was from the waters of Rizhao and Jiaonan, the
central region of the Yellow Sea, to the south of Qingdao.
The SOA's North
China Sea branch, in charge of water quality monitoring for the sailing venue,
last Wednesday released results from 22 water quality monitoring stations. They
showed the nutrient content in the water had continued to fall and the water
quality was fit for sailing competitions.
Xinhua
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