'Red Tide' threatens fish and sea life along Chile's coast.

Record ID: 104159

  • Title: 'Red Tide' threatens fish and sea life along Chile's coast.
  • Date: 11th May 2016
  • Summary: SANTIAGO, CHILE (MAY 11, 2016) (REUTERS) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE FROM CHILE'S CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, NICOLAS BAMBACH, SAYING: "It has been called the Godzilla El Nino, that is what it was called in the United States because it's thought to be one of the most intense El Ninos in the last 100 years. We had an intense El Nino in 1982, 1997 and now in 2015. However, this most recent one is more intense than its predecessors."
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2016 21:32
  • Keywords: El Nino Chile crustaceans fish birds washed up ocean environment
  • Location: ANTOFAGASTA, ARICA, GOLFO DE PENAS, ISLA DE CHILOE, ISLA SANTA MARIA, MAULLIN, PUERTO MONTT, QUEULE, SANTIAGO, VALDIVIA, CHILE
  • City: ANTOFAGASTA, ARICA, GOLFO DE PENAS, ISLA DE CHILOE, ISLA SANTA MARIA, MAULLIN, PUERTO MONTT, QUEULE, SANTIAGO, VALDIVIA, CHILE
  • Country: Chile
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA0044HD8G1V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS VIDEO THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Thousands of prawn washed up on a beach in Chile on Wednesday (May 11), the latest casualties of a "red tide" outbreak that is widening in southern Chile's fishing-rich waters, deepening what is already believed to be one of the country's worst environmental crises in recent years.
    The red tide - an algal bloom that turns the sea water red and makes seafood toxic - is a common, naturally recurring phenomenon in southern Chile, but the extent of the current outbreak is unprecedented.
    Washed-up prawns turned the beach in the northern port city of Arica red as locals scratched their heads as to what has been causing the country's recent spate of fish and crustaceans to wash ashore.
    "It must be the heating of the waters. Something is happening," said this unidentified local.
    Scientists say this year's El Nino weather pattern is likely a key factor in the red tide, as it warms the ocean and creates bloom-friendly conditions.
    "What we have seen with the varazones (prawns) on the Pacific coast of Chile is related to the Red Tide and the El Nino phenomena. The El Nino phenomena is related to the incidence of Red Tides due to an increase in temperature, due to changes in the ocean currents, due to changes in wind circulation which could generate favourable conditions for algae to grow uncontrollably in the ocean which causes Red Tide," said Nicolas Bambach, Executive Director of the Centre for Global Change from Chile's Catholic University.
    The red tide has caused sardines to wash up on southern beaches and paralyse the fishing industry, which is the mainstay of many coastal settlements. Fishing accounts for about 0.5 percent of the country's ross domestic product.
    Bambach told Reuters this year's El Nino is the worst to hit the country in a century.
    "It has been called the Godzilla El Nino, that is what it was called in the United States because it's thought to be one of the most intense El Ninos in the last 100 years. We had an intense El Nino in 1982, 1997 and now in 2015. However, this most recent one is more intense than its predecessors," he added.
    But some fishermen are blaming the local salmon industry, the world's second largest, for exacerbating the problem, citing the dumping of dead fish in March by salmon farmers after a bloom killed off much of their stock.
    "One speculation I can make is that the salmon industry in recent years has intensified and this changes the availability of nutrients in the ocean. Algae are the plants of the ocean and as we are increasing the load of nutrients in the oceans the proliferation of algae could be higher since there are favourable growth conditions," said Bambach.
    Salmon farms near the southern city of Puerto Montt and the Chiloe island have borne the brunt of the toxic algal bloom.
    The algal bloom in the region has already affected 37 of the nearly 415 salmon farms operating in southern Chile. Most of the farms are in ocean enclosures or in estuaries.
    And Greenpeace says the situation is not expected to get better soon.
    "The outlook is devastating. We have found hundreds of crustaceans of different types like clams, barnacles which we found very strange. Sea lions were beached, every hour there were sea lions with their mouths mangled, very small, this size. Also, in a part of Caucahue Island we found dozens of dead birds including quetros, which are a type of duck specific to this area, pipilenes and seagulls. We were on the dinghy for about ten minutes and we could find dozens of birds which are completely dead and floating in the water and also on the beach. Dozens of these birds were completely dead," said Estafania Gonzalez from Greenpeace.
    The disruption of sealife along Chile's coast, in turn, has seen wales wash ashore and caused birds such as albatrosses and petrels to leave for other areas with better food sources.
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