Filamentous algae invasion in Galicia

Sargassum threatens shellfish

Sargassum is a kind of filamentous algae that is covering Galician beaches and suffocating shellfish. These algae may be better known because they have recently affected the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands.

The sargassum appears every summer in most of the shellfish banks and proliferates due to the warming of the waters, this year being especially persistent since you have to clean the beaches every day adding more work to the hard trade of seafood.

Unlike other summers, the mantle of algae covers twelve kilometers of coastline and impossible to clean it all . The shellfishers begin to see clams surfacing as a result of suffocation, this being a step prior to their death.