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  Yahoo News 10 Jun 07
Hong Kong's "red tide" spreads

Channel NewsAsia 7 Jun 07
Seafood alert as 'red tide' hits China

BEIJING - A huge toxic "red tide" has spread out across the waters off southern China, contaminating seafood and posing a health risk for swimmers, state media reported Thursday.

The algal bloom, which sucks the oxygen out of the water and kills marine life, has struck near Shenzhen, a booming city just across the border from Hong Kong, the China Daily newspaper said.

"This is the biggest red tide that has ever appeared off the city's coast," said Zhou Kai, a marine expert with Shenzhen's municipal sea fishery environment monitoring station. "We strongly urge the public to stay away from the polluted sea areas and not eat sea products from there."

Zhou blamed the combination of hot weather and heavy rainfall for the 50-square-kilometre (20-square-mile) build-up, according to the report.

However the waters off southern China, like elsewhere across the nation, are well known to be heavily polluted by industrial discharge and a host of other contamination sources.

A government report released last month said the worsening pollution in China's Pearl River was causing severe contamination of southern sea waters. The report found that pollutants such as inorganic nitrogen, phosphate and petroleum were boosting the number of "red tides," which produce a foul smell and give the water a reddish hue.

The China Daily said it was the third such bloom this year in the area, while another red tide was affecting the waters off Hong Kong.

In another recent water pollution incident, millions of residents in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi had their drinking supplies contaminated after an algal bloom spread across nearby Taihu lake.

More than 70 percent of China's waterways and 90 percent of its underground water are contaminated by pollution, according to government figures. - AFP/ir

Yahoo News 10 Jun 07
Hong Kong's "red tide" spreads

The huge blooms of algae affecting the waters around Hong Kong have spread to a popular beach on the south of the island, authorities said Sunday.

The government warned people not to swim off Stanley Beach after the so-called red tide was spotted there. The latest sighting takes the number of affected beaches to 15, and local media said the latest outbreak was the biggest since 1998, when 90 percent of the city's farmed fish were wiped out.

Red tides are caused by the rapid multiplication of microscopic algae which discolour the water. Authorities said the latest outbreak was caused by a rare but non-toxic form of algae, and no fish deaths had so far been reported. Although the algae are not poisonous they can deprive fish of oxygen, and authorities urged farmers to monitor the situation closely.

On Thursday, state media in China reported that a toxic red tide had struck near Shenzhen, a booming city just across the border from Hong Kong, prompting fears it could spread southwards.
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