The invasive Asian seaweed is back, making an appearance down the eastern end of the Costa Tropical on La Mamola beaches.
The Mayor of Polopos-La Mamola, Matías González, announced that a cleaning operation to remove traces of this probematic aquatic plant had begun yesterday.
The Latin name for this type of seaweed is Rugulopterix okamurae and it has now shown up along practically the whole of the Costa Tropical after first appearing off Cádiz in 2015. Come this summer, it will get worse as higher temperature will cause more to break free and end up on the beaches rotting.
It grows at depths of between half a metre to five metres, although occasionally it can reach 15 meters in very transparent waters. So when winter and spring storms break it up, it eventually gets washed up onto beaches.
But if it will get worse on beaches, on the seabed it is much, much worse, and it is a problem without a solution.
It is slowly killing off native seaweed when it rots as it reduces oxygen and restricts sunlight penetrating. The knock-on effect is that as the normal seaweed dies off, so do the invetebrates that live amongst it.
It doesn’t stop there as it is threatening coral colonies and posidonia (Mediterranean tapeweed) meadows, with the latter being essential for the health of the water.
The worse affected areas last summer were the Maro-Cerro Gordo maritime reserve, La Herradura, the Tesorillo beach in Salobreña, as well as on the beaches of Castell de Ferro and La Mamola.
(News: La Mamola, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Keywords: Invasive Species, Asian Seaweed, Rugulopterix okamurae, Beaches
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