Italian beaches poisoned by algae

Italian beaches poisoned by algae

Richard Owen, Rome
03aug06

http://www.theaustralian.news. com.au/story/0,20867,20001027-30417,00.html

ITALIAN holiday beaches from Rome to Genoa are deserted, despite an unrelenting heatwave, because of a plague of poisonous algae that can turn even the sea breeze toxic.

Scientists blame a rise in sea temperatures for the phenomenon, which is causing damage to tourism that could run into millions of euros.
At Fregene, the fashionable resort on the coast near Rome, normally overflowing car parks were deserted and beach umbrellas and sunbeds were stacked unused. Where holidaymakers are usually packed in rows in August, there was only hot, empty sand.

At Mastino's, a restaurant and bathing beach favoured by the rich and famous of Rome since the days of La Dolce Vita in the 1950s, the sign says Divieto di balneazione (bathing forbidden).

"This is a disaster," said Ignazio Mastino, the lifeguard and nephew of the owner, Gillo Mastino.

A 150km stretch of Lazio coast is out of bounds, from Nettuno to Ladispoli, where shoals of dead fish washed up on the beach on Tuesday.

Local health authorities have banned bathing further north at beaches near Genoa, after a 60-year-old man was kept in hospital and several hundred bathers needed treatment.

Tests show the culprit is Ostreopsis ovata, algae that release neurotoxins into the air. The weeds usually rest on the bottom of the sea but rise to the surface when blooming.

Beachgoers fall ill either by coming into contact with it while swimming or by inhaling toxins carried by the breeze. Symptoms include breathing difficulties, irritation to the skin and eyes, fever and coughing.

Michele Bianchi, the lifeguard at the Hang Loose beach at Fregene, blamed fertiliser from nearby farmland.

But government marine scientist Silvio Greco said warmer currents in the Tyrrhenian Sea were to blame.

Some bathers have also been treated for jellyfish stings.

Antonio Di Natale, the chief marine biologist at the Genoa Aquarium, said the jellyfish and toxic algae were the result of warm currents from north Africa, with Italian coastal temperatures reaching almost 30C in some cases.

"The Mediterranean is gravely ill," said Rome daily Il Messaggero.

But last weekend, Fiumicino Mayor Mario Canapini dived into the sea in a T-shirt saying "I Love Fregene" to show the scare was unfounded.

The Times