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ARCHIVED - Rotting biomass causing concern on the shore of the Mar Menor
Decomposing seaweed darkens the water and lets off foul-smelling gas
As the sea temperature of the Mar Menor begins to rise there is growing concern over the condition of the water, with locals reporting that in the area of Los Urrutias and Los Nietos the part of the lagoon closest to the shore is darkening in colour and that a smell of rotten eggs is in the air.
There is a general acknowledgement that after the problems in the Mar Menor over the last few months, during which successive episodes of torrential rain have acted as catalysts on the runoff of nutrients from crop farming concerns into the lagoon, the summer of 2020 could see a return of the “green soup” to the lagoon as algae thrive and the normal water quality parameters are distorted. The process of eutrophication is accelerated by higher temperatures, and with the average reading having risen from 11.7 degrees to 18.98 degrees since January there are serious worries over what the situation will be when the water temperature reaches close to 30ºC, as it generally does in August.
In addition, the level of salinity continues to fall slightly in the lagoon and now stands at just under 38 PSU: this is almost the same as on the other side of La Manga in the Mediterranean, whereas in normal conditions the reading in the lagoon “ought” to be around 43 at this time of year.
@MarmenorKO mal olor, mal aspecto. Los nietos. Ahora mismo pic.twitter.com/gCvtLFydXm
— Barçcia🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦 (@sr_cule) April 23, 2020
The residents of Los Urrutias have reported the latest deterioration of conditions along the shore to the regional government and intend to register complaints with the Guardia Civil, while in response Ángel Pérez Ruzafa of the government’s scientific committee overseeing the condition of the lagoon attributes this latest episode to the failure to collect the seaweed which has accumulated along the coast in recent weeks. He is quoted as saying that “the problem is that the beaches were not cleaned properly a month or a month and a half ago”, and that the smell is due to seaweed rotting on the beach.
However, Sr Pérez Ruzafa adds that while this is a nuisance it is of no great consequence to the overall condition of the marine environment – instead, it merely adds to the list of reasons why this summer is unlikely to see many tourists flocking to the Mar Menor, a list which is of course topped by the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately, in terms of who is responsible for deficiencies in the cleaning of vegetation from the beaches, the question rapidly descends into unedifying finger-pointing between different administrative bodies. The regional government lays the blame squarely at the feet of the national government, on the grounds that the Costas department of the Ministry for Ecological Transition failed to do its job in February, when new sand was supplied during the restoration of the beaches without the biomass being properly removed.
However, Costas retorts that its work was curtailed in mid-March by the declaration of the state of emergency, and that since then neither the regional government nor the Town Hall of Cartagena has done enough to clear the beaches of biomass.
Costas adds that it is still awaiting the information compiled during 2018 concerning the trials of the “Finnish spider” – this is a Watermaster device which was trialled for the removal of mud from the shallow coastal water.
Meanwhile, expert opinion quoted in the regional press is that although unpleasant, the smell at the beaches is not a cause for great concern. Such phenomena are common on the inland shore of the lagoon when marine plants decompose in anaerobic conditions (with little oxygen), and that this is what causes the water to darken and the sulphuric smell.
Unfortunately the episodes of flooding in recent months has meant that the plants found along the shore also include some which are not normally found in seawater.
Image: @Barçcia (Twitter)
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