The proliferation of green algae on the coasts of Brittany threatens the environment and the health of the inhabitants. To reduce it, the solution would be to attack intensive agriculture, but resistance is numerous, reports the Financial Times.
It takes a moment to realize that La Grandville, in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, is not one of those picturesque beaches found in North Brittany.
On the shore, heaps of rotting green algae bathe in pools of black water and, instead of a spit of sand at low tide, visitors discover a bulldozer and a tractor – the drivers are welcome shelter in watertight cabins – picking up tons of seaweed for disposal.
It was in 1971 that the inhabitants of this rural region noticed abnormal “green tides”. It would take until the late 1980s for a link to be made with mysterious deaths – a jogger on the beach, a horse in training, the driver of a dump truck collecting seaweed, dogs and animals wild (boars and badgers).
Limited progress despite two plans
These deaths explain the closed beaches, the zones prohibited to the walkers and the signs, in La Grandville and elsewhere, warning of the risk of intoxication and death due to the hydrogen sulphide released by the piles of decomposing seaweed. . For many local residents, the most scandalous remains the long-term reluctance of the public authorities to tackle the problem at the root: the discharge of nitrates into the waterways, from the excrement of pigs, cows and chickens. , or nitrogen fertilizers, which cause explosive algae blooms when they reach the sea.
“It is not by taking
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Victor Mallet
Source
Founded in 1888 as London Financial Guide, a four-page journal intended “to honest investors and respectable brokers”, the Financial Times is today the financial and economic daily newspaper of
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