Nature

Huge algal bloom off Qingdao

The waters off Qingdao, a major port city on the Yellow Sea, have been blanketed by green algae since late June.

The city has dispatched thousands of boats to scoop up the plants, which cover 1,746 square kilometres, according to Jiemian. So far, 310,000 tons have been collected.

This is the biggest Qingdao bloom so far. The algae was a particular embarrassment in 2008, when the city hosted the Olympic sailing. In 2017, research identified purple laver farming in neighbouring Jiangsu province as the root cause. When farmers harvest the edible seaweed, they inadvertently release the algae, the research found. The green algae then starts its journey north until it eventually reaches Qingdao hundreds of kilometres away.

That conclusion was heavily disputed by experts in Jiangsu, who say the province has prohibited farmers from dumping algae into the ocean since 2014. This year, the scale of purple laver farming in northern Jiangsu fell 38% compared to last year, they said. “Jiangsu’s control effort is considered the strongest in 2021, and yet Qingdao’s algal bloom turned out to be the worst in years, indicating a weak link between the two,” said Dai Weiping, secretary general of Jiangsu province edible seaweed association. He said eutrophication and climate change were more important factors. 

As the debate continues, the short-term solution appears to be better forecasts and preemptive clean-up. “We should make preparations for algal blooms like we do for typhoons,” expert Sun Song told Jiemian.

-->
Cookies Settings

Dialogue Earth uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser. It allows us to recognise you when you return to Dialogue Earth and helps us to understand which sections of the website you find useful.

Required Cookies

Required Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

Dialogue Earth - Dialogue Earth is an independent organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of the world's urgent environmental challenges. Read our privacy policy.

Cloudflare - Cloudflare is a service used for the purposes of increasing the security and performance of web sites and services. Read Cloudflare's privacy policy and terms of service.

Functional Cookies

Dialogue Earth uses several functional cookies to collect anonymous information such as the number of site visitors and the most popular pages. Keeping these cookies enabled helps us to improve our website.

Google Analytics - The Google Analytics cookies are used to gather anonymous information about how you use our websites. We use this information to improve our sites and report on the reach of our content. Read Google's privacy policy and terms of service.

Advertising Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies:

Google Inc. - Google operates Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Google Ad Manager. These services allow advertisers to plan, execute and analyze marketing programs with greater ease and efficiency, while enabling publishers to maximize their returns from online advertising. Note that you may see cookies placed by Google for advertising, including the opt out cookie, under the Google.com or DoubleClick.net domains.

Twitter - Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find compelling and follow the conversations.

Facebook Inc. - Facebook is an online social networking service. China Dialogue aims to help guide our readers to content that they are interested in, so they can continue to read more of what they enjoy. If you are a social media user, then we are able to do this through a pixel provided by Facebook, which allows Facebook to place cookies on your web browser. For example, when a Facebook user returns to Facebook from our site, Facebook can identify them as part of a group of China Dialogue readers, and deliver them marketing messages from us, i.e. more of our content on biodiversity. Data that can be obtained through this is limited to the URL of the pages that have been visited and the limited information a browser might pass on, such as its IP address. In addition to the cookie controls that we mentioned above, if you are a Facebook user you can opt out by following this link.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a business- and employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites and mobile apps.