Olympic sailing event organisers appear to have won the battle to clear the giant algae bloom that disrupted preparations for the Games regatta at the Chinese coastal resort of Qingdao.
Australian Tornado sailor Darren Bundock reported yesterday that the green slime was no longer an issue in the Olympic sailing course area. ‘The algae has gone’ he said ‘Its back to normal, big tides and very little wind.’
In June and early July, large areas, including more than 30% of the course area was covered with stinking green algae, disrupting training for Olympic sailors and prompting an intensive clean-up operation involving around 1,500 fishing boats, heavy machinery and around 10,000 army troops.
Collectively by mid-July they removed what was reported as hundreds of thousands of tonnes of algae, but long strands remained in the water fouling rudders and daggarboards.
The local government has laid 56km of oil spill containment booms and have boats doing regular inspections to make sure clumps of algae does not drift back onto the course area.
It was initally feared that the heavy winds blowing from the south east caused by Typhoon Fung Wong would bring in more algae but that proved not to be the case.
Workers clean up blue-green algae from the sea as windsurfers sail behind, at Qingdao, June 2008 -
by Rob Kothe
6:29 PM Tue 5 Aug 2008 GMT
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