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REACTIONS
María Altamirano (president of the Spanish Society of Phycology and professor of Botany and Vegetal Physiology at the University of Málaga):
“This seaweed is so widespread that there is little we can do other than to prevent it from spreading further to other areas. This is a tragedy; it’s taking over the entire seabed. The marine flora is completely gone. Species with a slow rate of growth are unable to compete with a species that is able to reproduce into hundreds in only a matter of weeks” she explains.
In 2016, alarm bells rang in Ceuta when large amounts of a seaweed were washed up on the beaches. Samples were immediately sent to Altamirano, who determined that it was a species of brown seaweed from Japan, China and Korea. Outside of the Pacific, it has only been detected in a coastal lake in France.
However, this species of seaweed has not been presenting this invasive behaviour in any other regions except the Strait of Gibraltar.
“Maritime traffic is not the problem, it’s the lack of control of ballast water – the water that ships load into a tank at the port of origin to maintain their buoyancy,” the expert explains. When the ship reaches its destination, this water is ’recklessly discharged’, containing the ‘stowaways’ coming from the Pacific.
“In New Zealand, ballast water can only be released miles away from the coast, and there are strong penalties, including prison sentences, for those who do not comply. Here (Algeciras), they are allowed to discharge at the port,” Altamirano adds.
The Cádiz Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds calls the invasive algae Rugulopteryx Okamurae in the Strait of Gibraltar an “ecological catastrophe.” They assured that the fishing sector might as well be “fishing for seaweed.”
They also stated that “certain fish have disappeared from the surrounding area of the Rock due to this seaweed occupying all the rocky zones.” Fishermen are demanding that public administrations take urgent measures to manage this.
José Carlos García, marine biologist and professor at the University of Seville, is leading a research project financed by entities such as the Cepsa Foundation, among others which will cover half of the cost; €200,000 of the €400,000 initially budgeted.
“We are facing an unprecedented disaster in Europe. I’m have not heard of any other cases like this in other areas. In our case, this new invasive species has exhibited a great exponential growth and distribution within of being officially detected in the Strait (2015) – although it may have established itself even earlier.
For example, it amassed to more than 5,000 tonnes on the beaches of Ceuta. The only comparable case is the Bladderwrack seaweed proliferation on the Caribbean coasts.
The difference is that the Asian Seaweed, Rugulopteryx Okamurae is an exotic species from Asia, with an overwhelming competitive capacity over the local ecosystem, which is now being displaced. A large part of the Strait of Gibraltar’s seabed – in its two coastal fronts – is already literally carpeted by our ‘visitor’.”
As for solutions, “It’s like installing doors in a field. The asexual phase, which we are seeing in the Strait, has subtle and efficient ways of disbursing, making its growth virtually unstoppable. I am confident that over time, as has happened in other cases, the local marine life will counter-attack, and the ecosystem will reach a new equilibrium in which this new invasive species will coexist with the local marine life, and not as in abundanly as it is now.”
