Farmers unite to battle the bloom

AS algal blooms turn coastlines green across Europe, solutions to the problem may include a new collaboration between land and sea farmers, producing shellfish and seaweed for the food industry while removing the excess nutrients in the sea that cause bloom.

According to Nicolas Ranninger of Bord Bia, a team of scientists at Kiel in Germany, on the Baltic coast, are developing a pilot experiment to remove the excess nutrients and phytoplankton in the sea. They will be farming mussels and brown seaweed, both of which have strong nutritive needs for phytoplankton and nutrients, plus commercial value in the food industry. The initial project is to farm 32 tonnes of mussels and 10 tonnes of seaweed. Algal biofuel production may also offer a solution to the bloom problem. More than 50 companies are producing algal biofuel commercially. Increased levels of organic nutrients in rivers has led to growth of algae or phytoplankton blooms on the coasts which can result in severe damage to the ecosystem, especially when the decaying algae releases decomposing gazes such as hydrogen sulphide and depletes the oxygen in water.