Algues Vertes Brittany

[Christine Animal]

They seem to be surprised and not understand why the wild boar are now dying in the Saint Brieuc bay.  They are wondering if it is because of the algues vertes (green seaweed) which is covering everything there.

http://www.midinews.com/france/actualites_economie/2011/36191/algues-vertes-hecatombe-de-sangliers-dans-une-baie-bretonne.html

 

This has been going on for some time now (thirty years!), so why are they surprised?  Already back in 2009 a horse and two dogs on a walk with there mistress suddenly died there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJLDZIwHpDc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdZCS-OsdS8&feature=related 

 

It was said to be caused by all the intensive pig farms in the area and their waste.  How much longer is it going to go on?

 

[idun]

We have stayed in Plestin les Greves a couple of times and the stench that came from the algues was terrible. Fortunately not all the time. I think that there were terrible problems a couple of years ago and thought that someone had died there too.

What can survive when the farmers are still using so many products, is it nitrates?

[pachapapa]

H2S same as the horse which fell and was unable to get out of the "quicksand". A quick death.

[Frenchie]

Urgent need to do something about it indeed !!!

 

[Val_2]

I live in the region and the beach at Plestin (St Efflam and St Michel-en-Grêve) is being cleaned daily with heavy machinery. Passing it on tuesday afternoon it was pretty clean with only the central area still green where the rivers run down from the hills at Tréduder etc but at both ends it was full of holidaymakers enjoying the hot sunshine and sand and sports. Not every beach is affected, the Isle Grande and up round Perros in unaffected because of the currents and they are not big bays where it has rivers running off the intensively farmed land. Our village beaches are fine too even with all the intensive veg and salad production that goes on. I would not however, go fishing for any coquillages anywhere at present and some beaches have already failed the toxicology tests this week for coquillages all over Brittany.

[Val_2]

No one mentioned the commune worker who died from the gas last summer when discharging it from his remorque at the déchetterie. People working on the beaches have detectors like radiation badges and have 60seconds to vacate their machines and the beach before they are overcome and killed.

[brianagain]

Don't hold your breath for action just yet - Sarkozy doesn't seem bothered.

"On a visit to Brittany this month the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy,

defended farmers, saying they were not to blame for the green algae. He

dismissed as "environmental fundamentalists" those people who were

loudly campaigning over the nitrate link to the algae"

from;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/27/brittany-beaches-toxic-algae-boars

Brian (again)

[Christine Animal]

Looks like we're not the only ones!

    

 

http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/life/green-algae-carpets-qingdao-coast-543853

http://www.pinoyhalo.com/2011/07/26/algae-bloom-in-china-beach/

 

                        [:-))]