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Surging Pollution Levels Blamed for Red Tide off China Coast

SHANGHAI, May 23, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Outflows of untreated sewage on the east China coast are causing red tides in seawaters near Shanghai, the Shanghai Daily reported Monday.

The Shanghai government is keeping a close watch of fish and shellfish from the Zhoushan Archipelago, which has been struck by the worst red tide in recent years, the paper said.

Red tide, a bloom of bacteria that gives a red tint to coastal ocean waters, produces toxins that kill fish and contaminate crustaceans.

Red tides in Hong Kong sea waters cost the territory's fishing industry millions of dollars in damage as fish farms had to throw out tons of contaminated stocks last year.

Now the problem is escalating off mainland Chinese waters. The Shanghai branch of the State Oceanography Bureau said there were around 38 red tides a year in the 1990s off the Shanghai coast compared to just four annually in the 1980s, the paper reported.

"Dumping untreated household sewage into the East China Sea is increasing the frequency of red tides," Wu Zhennan, vice-director of the Bureau's environmental department.

There are more than 40 sewage drains along Shanghai's coastline discharging 5.7 million tons of untreated sewage into coastal waters each day, the paper said quoting official statistics.

Shanghai is expected to spend more on facilities for sewage disposal and treatment to prevent further pollution in the East China Sea by 2005.

((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)