Mijas To Fight Invasive Asian Sea Algae

MIJAS Council to protect the natural and indigenous marine heritage.

The Beaches Councillor, José Carlos Martín, reported yesterday, June 28, that Mijas Council has joined the ‘Invasive Algae Forum’ with the aim of protecting the natural and indigenous marine heritage.
The Blue Institute of Biotechnology and Development-IBYDA of the University of Malaga, the Campus of International Global Excellence of the Sea, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the Marine-Maritime Cluster of Andalusia, the Chair of Littoral Sciences of the University of Malaga and the Equilibrio Marino association constitutes the ‘Invasive Algae Forum’ to confront the biological invasion of the brown algae of Asian origin Rugulopteryx Okamurae, which seriously threatens the survival of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem.
This group of entities articulates the scientific-technical research network, the business and productive body, and citizen organisations and nature conservation, offering itself to the local, regional and state public administrations. The Rugulopteryx Okamurae “is an algae that comes from Asia and that is obviously taking root on our coastline, both in the Cadiz area and in Malaga and we are beginning to notice its effects.
In the last Governing Board we joined this forum that basically, from a scientific and technical point of view, seeks to join forces of administrations, professionals and scientists to fight against this foreign plant, to prevent its presence on the Mediterranean coast and, obviously, in the short or medium term, eradicate it,” said the mayor.
In Mijas, almost 800 tons have already been removed so far this year and cleaning is done daily to keep the coast ready, especially during the summer. “This forum already has technical tables planned. In the end, these types of solutions that cover a lot of coastline have to be coordinated because it is the only way to eradicate the problem, it is useless to remove them in Mijas and continue in Marbella or Fuengirola, because they will return to our municipality,” Martin says.

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