861 ligurian beach problems

A similar thing happened to the beaches of Le Marche and Abruzzo several years ago, but I think it was a different organism - a blue-green algae. I haven't seen the reports on the Ligurian algal bloom, but the events are usually triggered by the combination of high sea temperatures, a slowing down in the currents in the sea which allows the algae to remain in one place and the arrival of some sort of pollutant or "chemical" which encourages the growth of the algae.

The growth of algae in the sea is usually held in check because of a shortage of some essential nutrient, such as iron, phosphate or nitrogen. Phosphates ae used in large quantities in washing powder and nitrogen is present in sewage. Hence dumping sewage in the wrong place can cause algal blooms as can (illegal) dumping of industrial waste which may be high in several trace elements as well as the above materials.

It could be that the chemical that you refer to was something which potentiated growth of the algae, however I can't find any reference to such chemical in the news reports. The story in The Times does say that people *thought* they were being attacked by chemical weapons but that later studies showed that the cause was a dinoflagellate.

[url]http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31719/story.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1700730,00.html[/url]
[url]http://breaking.tcm.ie/story.asp?j=22086272&p=zzx86376&n=22086456&x=[/url]

The organism identified in these reports is the one usually referred to as a "red tide" which has been reported in the Mediterrenean in previous years.

As you can see Liguria takes its responsibilities seriously:

[url]http://www.arpal.org/Balne/balneaz/Arpal_EN/arpal.htm[/url]

Although the news stories keep referring to the organism as "tropical". Even vey old reports in scientific journals refer to the presence of the organism in the Tyrrhenian Sea, so I suspect that all of the reporting is tinged by the usual "pro-global warming, we're all doomed" hysteria. There are also reports from the University of Genoa of the toxicity of this organism and the fact that its poison can be spread in the air going back to 2000, which suggests that the organism was known in the area several years ago.

There's a full scientific report on the algal blooms here:

[url]http://ioc.unesco.org/hab/HAN26%20v2.pdf[/url]

The regional paper IL SECOLO XIX [url]http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/[/url] has full coverage of the problem and has been running stories all week. It appears the problem is currently centred on the Genoa end of Liguria.

... to carry on with the news it is suggested now that you do not eat the sea food from the area either as it may well be contaminated...

the chemical poisoning element is being investigated now by the police in genoa........... there is a special police force as regards toxic waste dumping...

further to that there are something over two hundred new species of life found in the med sea off the italian coast ...... whch have long existed in other warmer seas but have not been prevalent in the med sea...

hopefully it will all mean eventually that people will be able to get into the sea without freezing much later on in the year as it will all take a time to cool down.... meanwhile people on the beach have tried adding pasta to the mix to see if there ia a possability of coming up with a new pasta recipe..... however levels of salt have as yet made it quite inedible... but they are working on it

[QUOTE=adriatica]anyone planning a beach holiday in this area needs to watch out for a poisoned tropical algae... according to the news today.... around 200 people so far have been taken off to hospital

the problem seems to have arrived because of illegal dumping of some dangerous chemical in the sea and this has reacted causing the poison to be more dangerous

most people are sunbathing on the beach and then using pools for swimming

there are notices posted in the most affected areas and i would think be quite easy to tell where its safe or not.... ie no locals swimming in the sea

i would also think this is not a long term problem as these outbreaks seem to occur when high summer temperatures kick off a chemical reaction... so i am not saying ligurian beaches are generally unsafe[/QUOTE]
In the summer in Italy,as gradually the noise from national politics dies down suddenly tremendous things seem to happen!my sister in law lives near Como in a nearby swamp there is now a 12 foot Anaconda snake destroying the fauna in the area(shock-horror) last year in the Marche we had the "usual" panther escaped from a circus, so the list goes on with tropical algae,white sharks off Rimini,tiger mosquitoes in Roma and Venezia,hideous creatures roaming in the alps and of course in Abruzzo,to conclude i'd say avoid Liguria (momentarily)Como (most of the time) have a drink and don't worry about it.