RED TIDE - CHINA (BOHAI SEA)

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A ProMED-mail post

<http://www.healthnet.org/programs/promed.html>

Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 12:21:06 -0400

From: Marjorie P. Pollack <pollackmp@mindspring.com>

Source: Media sources

Shrimp farmers in eastern China have been forced to close their ponds to avoid contamination by red tide, a toxic algae spreading in the Bohai Sea, the newspaper China Daily said Friday. A tide 600 square miles in size was six miles east of the port city of Cangzhou, 110 miles southeast of Beijing, and spreading rapidly, the report said.

Fish and shellfish contaminated by red tide, a fast-breeding, oxygen-depleting algae, are unsafe to eat.

Surveillance planes of the State Oceanic Administration detected the tide a week ago and have been monitoring its spread since. Fish farmers were warned to stop pumping ocean water into their fish and shrimp ponds. "The red tide is serious this time and could become disastrous," the report quoted Yang Jiwu, an expert of the Environmental Protection Department as saying. Recent rainfall, strong winds and a decline in temperatures might help contain the tide's spread, the report said.

The size and duration of red tides has increased in recent years due to worsening pollution from industries, agriculture and fish farms. Twenty-two red tides were reported along China's coasts in 1998, including one that lasted more than 40 days and affected 3,125 square miles of coastal waters, the newspaper said.