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Giant "red tide" hits East China Sea Copyright 2000 Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
June 19, 2000BEIJING - The East China Sea was affected by a "red tide" of poisonous algae that by Monday had grown to cover an unprecedented 7,000 square kilometres, a spokesman said.
In places the algae were more than 2 metres deep, Yuan Ding, an environmental protection official at the Shanghai-based East China Sea section of the State Oceanic Administration, said on Monday.
The closest point of the red tide, which was first noticed on May 3, was just over 10 nautical miles from the coast, Yuan said.
The build-up of the algae was caused mainly by pollutants discharged into rivers, lakes and the sea, but weather conditions had also contributed to the problem, he said.
Although state standards had been set for discharge levels, water quality in coastal areas was still worsening, he said.
Dead fish, shrimps, crabs and clams could be seen all along the province's coast, bringing losses of millions of dollars to the fishing industry, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
The floating mass had been formed by two types of poisonous algae, Xinhua quoted a spokesman saying.
Zhejiang suffered 132 red tides between 1993 and 1997, making it the worst affected area of China, Xinhua said.
Earlier this month a smaller red tide hit the South China Sea off Guangdong province, Xinhua reported on June 8.