"At the fish stall in the village of Aspra, near the Sicilian capital of Palermo, the day's catch is garnished in green. But far from being an ingredient to be cooked up as a side dish, it is the worst enemy of local fishermen. Known as Rugulopteryx okamurae, this invasive seaweed has become the bane of their lives. For the past two years they have spent days at a time untangling it from their nets, watching their income suffer as a result."
""We've had the algae here for 10 years," says Gregorio Linde, skipper of a small-scale fishing boat in Tarifa, on the Gibraltar Strait. "The seabed is a carpet of it, and the nets don't catch anything." His family has lived from the fruits of the sea for generations, but now his days often consist of hauling seaweed just to dump it back. And he is not alone. Losses to such small-scale fisheries in Spain exceed 3 million ($3.48 million) annually."
"And it is also harming coastal tourism in countries like Spain and Italy, where vacationers wrinkle their noses as they tiptoe through foul-smelling mats of algae on once white-sand beaches. Despite the effort and cost of carting it off to landfill, new tides refill the beaches. The greatest damage, however, is out of sight. Underwater, the seaweed is smothering vital seagrass meadows, harming sea urchins and occupying fish shelters."
Invasive seaweed Rugulopteryx okamurae entangles nets and ruins catches along coasts near Palermo, Tarifa, and other Mediterranean locations. Small-scale fishers spend days untangling it, with Spanish small-scale fisheries losing over 3 million euros annually. Tourism suffers as foul-smelling mats cover once white-sand beaches, and municipal removal to landfill is repeatedly undone by new tides. Underwater, the seaweed smothers seagrass meadows, harms sea urchins, and occupies fish shelters, causing profound and potentially irreversible ecological damage. The invasion behaves like a wildfire that wipes out biodiversity, leaving ecosystems dominated by a single species. Local governments regularly haul tons of seaweed from beaches to landfill, imposing economic costs on coastal communities.
Read at www.dw.com
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