Yahoo News 20 Aug 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Mounds of rotting seaweed clogging beaches across northwestern France are emitting a toxic and potentially lethal gas, test results released by the government showed on Thursday.
Tests were ordered on the foul-smelling algae, which green groups blame on nitrates fertilisers used by local farmers, after a horse apparently died from inhaling fumes on a beach in Saint Michel de Greve in Brittany.
Results showed the seaweed in Saint Michel was giving off dangerous levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), sometimes referred to as "sewer gas" because it is produced by the breakdown of putrified waste material.
"Measurements carried out on site ... showed in several places that the gas released by sediment containing the decomposing algae could be dangerous," said France's national institute for environmental threats, INERIS.
Several points on the beach tested positive for hydrogen sulphide at a concentration of 1,000 parts per million, a level that "can be deadly in a few minutes," the report said.
INERIS recommended the area be cordoned off as a short-term precautionary measure, and for workers charged with clearing the algae be equipped with hydrogen sulphide detectors.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon and the ministers for health, agriculture and the environment visited the site in Saint Michel on Thursday to evaluate the situation and decide what safety measures to adopt.
The build-up of rotting weed on shores in more than 80 towns around Brittany has worried residents and threatened the region's lucrative tourist industry, with part of the coastline already declared off-limits.
Green groups blame nitrate pollution caused by intensive agriculture -- especially among pig farmers -- and have accused the government of turning a blind eye to an "environmental cancer."
The government was spurred to act after a horse and rider fell onto a patch of the algae on July 28.
The horse died immediately, while 28-year-old horseman Vincent Petit lost consciousness and was pulled to safety by nearby workers.
French government wades into noxious algae row
Sophie Louet, Reuters 20 Aug 09;
SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GREVE, France (Reuters) - France will clear thousands of tons of noxious seaweed from northern beaches after reports that it is emitting dangerous gases, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Thursday.
Environmental groups demanded action after a horse collapsed and died this month crossing a beach covered with washed-up algae at the resort of Saint-Michel-en-Greve in Brittany.
The horse's rider lost consciousness and had to be dragged from a meter-deep patch of rotting green sludge.
Fillon said the government would take charge of the issue, promising to reduce levels of the farm chemicals that environmentalists say make their way onto the beaches and lead to the emission of dangerous fumes.
"The state will assume all of its responsibilities and will take charge of the clean-up of the worst affected beaches, where there could be a public health risk," Fillon said while visiting Saint-Michel-en-Greve.
A report commissioned by Ecology Minister Chantal Jouanno revealed that levels of hydrogen sulfide recorded in the bay at Saint-Michel-en-Greve, produced by rotting algae, reached 1,000 parts per million.
Concentrations above 500 parts per million can potentially be fatal when inhaled, the report said.
The state agreed to foot the bill of the clean-up after some local authorities baulked at spending around 100,000 euros ($140,000) per year.
France also plans to clear weed from the sea at the end of the winter, Fillon said.
Environmentalists are demanding action to promote organic farming in the region, where 60 percent of French pigs are reared.
(Writing by Joseph Tandy; Editing by Victoria Main)
How algae turns the tide toxic
Judith Burns, BBC News 20 Aug 09;
The word 'algae' is a generic term which can cover anything from seaweed to microscopic organisms.
The type of seaweed causing problems along the Breton coast of France is called "Ulva" , often known as sea lettuce.
Along the south coast of the UK there are build ups of another algae called "Enteromorpha" . This is composed of thin filaments which mat together. It looks a bit like pond weed.
These incidents are being blamed on a process known as '"Eutrophication".
After heavy rain, nitrate based fertiliser from arable land and effluent from livestock and from the human sewage system can be washed into streams and rivers.
This 'run-off' ultimately flows into the sea where it boosts the growth of algae.
Dave Lowthion, marine team leader at the UK's Environment Agency said: "The things that make these weeds grow are a supply of nutrients; good light conditions so you are really looking for fairly clear water, the light shines through it to some depth; and the right tidal conditions."
Algal blooms are bad for biodiversity because they squeeze out slower growing plantlife and use up the available oxygen in the water both when they are alive and when they die and start to decompose.
Animals that rely on oxygen such as shrimps and worms will die. This has a knock on effect on the birds and fish that feed on them.
The two types of algae causing problems in Europe are not in themselves toxic. But when they die and rot they give off hydrogen sulphide.
In France, the top surface of the piles of rotting algae is baked hard by the sun and the gas is trapped underneath. When the surface is broken, it can give off enough of the gas to kill a larger animal like a horse.
The beaches along France's northern coast are particularly vulnerable to the build up of algae. This is because recent spring tides have dumped it in piles at the top of beaches. Recent hot weather has led to the algae starting to rot.
Off the coast of the UK and Ireland ocean currents are stronger. This means the algae is likely to be swept away before it can be dumped on shore in large quantities by the tides.
The seaweed building up along the south coast of the UK is in sheltered areas like harbours which are not subject to such high tides. So the algae stays spread out in the water rather than being piled up at the edge.
In the UK, The Environment Agency has warned that wetter summers will make the problem worse as heavier rain will increase run off from farmland into rivers and streams.
Last week, fish were killed by an algal bloom off the coast of Cornwall. This was caused by microscopic form of plankton called 'Karena Mikimotoi'.
Satellite images allow scientists to monitor the blooms.
Horse dies, France faces reality of toxic beaches
Elaine Ganley, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Aug 09;
SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GREVE, France – It should have been a perfect day for Vincent Petit, finishing up an afternoon gallop on a wide expanse of beach along a pastel-colored bay. Instead, he and his mount were sucked into a hole of noxious black sludge.
The horse died within seconds, the rider lost consciousness and a dirty secret on the Brittany coast reverberated across France — decaying green algae was fouling some of its best beaches.
A report ordered by the government after the accident found concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted by the rotting algae were as high as 1,000 parts per million on the beach where the horse died — an amount that "can be fatal in several minutes."
There had been signs of a crisis for years in this idyllic corner of Brittany. But scaring away tourists was in no one's interest, including the farming industry — the region's economic backbone — whose nitrate-packed fertilizers power algae blooms.
So, while tongues wagged, folks whispered and acrimony grew, an official hush prevailed. It took the death of the horse to bring the problem into the open.
Decaying ulva algae threatens other beaches around France and the world, from the United States to China, experts say. Last year, the Chinese government brought in the army to remove the slimy growths so the Olympic sailing competition could be held.
In Brittany's Cote d'Armor region, conditions are perfect for its spread — sunlight, shallow waters and flat beaches. Chemical and natural fertilizers like pig excrement, loaded with nitrates and phosphorous, have saturated the land, spilling into rivers and the ocean, feeding the algae that then proliferate.
Harmless while in water, the algae form dangerous gases — notably hydrogen sulfide, with its characteristic rotten-egg smell — when they wash up on land and decay. A white crust forms and traps the gases, which are released when stepped on or otherwise disturbed. Over time, putrefied algae turns sand into a black silt muck, sometimes containing pockets of poison gas.
On July 28, Petit, a 28-year-old researcher in a state-run virology lab, had just finished riding his thoroughbred Sir Glitter, a retired racehorse, on the Saint-Michel-en-Greves beach, when the two were suddenly mired in muck as he led the horse on foot in search of a place to cross a stream running through the sand.
"The horse and I slid in," said Petit, who is also trained in veterinary studies. "A horse in that situation is in an enormous panic, but he didn't have time to struggle."
Petit said he watched horrified as his horse stopped breathing and died within about 30 seconds, then he himself passed out. Petit was pulled from the mire by a bulldozer shovel after a man who witnessed the accident gave the alert.
While locals are aware of the perils posed by the silt traps that lurk under the sand around streams that feed from the beach into the ocean, Petit did not sense the danger until the ground gave way and he and his horse were sucked into the noxious ooze up to the man's chest.
Police initially ruled the horse suffocated, but an autopsy showed the animal died of an acute pulmonary edema with symptoms "compatible with gaseous intoxication in a brutal manner," Petit said, quoting the report, which he paid for.
There was no foreign matter in the horse's throat, lungs or stomach and no sign of a heart attack, he said.
There have been local efforts to clear the blight. Mayor Rene Ropartz said Saint-Michel-en-Greve, a village of 480 people, collected 10,000 tons of algae from the mile-long beach by the end of July; several years ago they cleaned up 21,000 tons.
"This bay is magnificent and, unfortunately, this tarnishes the image," said Ropartz, adding that the horse's death shows the role of the algae "is no longer in doubt" and spurred the government into action.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon visited Saint-Michel-en-Greve last week, pledging measures to control the algae by next spring.
The horse is only the latest victim of the algae's noxious fumes. A man was found dead on the same beach two decades ago, his arm sticking out from a pile of algae. Another man fell into a four-day coma after cleaning algae 10 years later. And last year, two dogs died while romping on an algae-covered beach 60 miles to the east.
At Grandville beach, where the dogs died, putrefying algae has turned the sand to blackened silt, spotted with green swampland and white crusty clumps of algae in decay. The stench of hydrogen sulfide hangs heavy in the area, where people occasionally show up to gawk at the ruined beach.
"Once you could swim here. Now, it's no longer a beach, it's a garbage dump," said Andre Ollivro, a founder of Halt the Green Tide, one of several ecology groups that has warned of the algae peril as bad blood built with farmers.
After the dogs died, scientists at CEVA, a state-run institute that tracks algae in France, began protecting themselves with hand-held instruments to measure hydrogen sulfide, said agency official Sylvain Ballu.
Ballu said he found 500 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide in the area where the dogs died.
Solving the problem will take far more than cleaning algae from beaches.
Water in the affected region currently measures 32-33 milligrams per liter of nitrate — compared to a normal level of 5 milligrams, said Alain Menesguen, a biologist with the French Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. Some rivers reach 60-70 milligrams and the ground water in some areas reaches 100 milligrams, he said.
"We've reached saturation," he said. Returning to normal levels will require huge changes in the agricultural sector without seeing any immediate drop in the algae mass.
"This is very difficult for farmers and politicians to accept," Menesguen said.
Solange Le Guen, who raises 80 cows on a farm planted with corn, wheat and other crops in the hills behind Saint-Michel-en-Greve, says farmers aren't the only ones to blame.
Fault also lies with water purification plants located too close to the ocean, she said. She conceded, when pressed, that "people have abused" fertilizers. "We were badly advised," she said.
For Petit, it comes down to assuring some good comes from the tragedy and his scrape with death.
"I'm trying to do everything so that my horse didn't die for nothing, that this won't just end as a simple accident," he said. "It could have been worse, for me."
