Invader Alert: The Red Algae Settle in Northern Morocco
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Loading... - Elmaleh Aamir
- 24 Apr 2023
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The fishermen of Mdiq, 13 km from Tetouan in northern Morocco, had never imagined that an invader could measure 10 cm and look like tea leaves, but "the sea is always full of surprises," says Abdellah Imrane resignedly, while cleaning his fishing nets of brown algae. For four years now, this seaweed has weighed down the nets, which end up sinking to the bottom of the water, preventing fish from clinging to them. "I've been fishing here for 35 years, swimming here. I had never seen it; it’s not from here.”
Originally from Japan, brown algae or Rugulopterix okamurae is an invasive species that grows very quickly. Youness Baghdidi, president of the Fnideq Champions Association for Scuba Diving and Environmental Protection, remembers having seen it for the first time in 2017 in a few places. "During my dives, I notice each time that the algae spreads very quickly and where it develops, the fish are rarer," he explains to us.
The speed of its development and its consequences are worrying the authorities, pushing the National Institute for Fisheries Research to begin underwater explorations in 2019. For the moment, there is still no precise mapping of the presence of the seaweed on the Moroccan coast but according to observations, the seaweed has invaded the natural habitat of certain species. “We have found that in the Jebha region, algae have taken the place of the habitats of sea anemones, for example,” says Mohammed Idrissi Malouli, director of INRH Tangier. Read More…
