Chinese Officials Say Sailing Area Clear By 7/10 - Not So For Remainder Of Qingdao Coast

[hatrack]

QINGDAO, China - Thousands of Chinese troops and volunteers should clear unsightly algae from competition areas at the Qingdao Olympic sailing venue by Thursday, an official said.

The picturesque seaside resort in northern China has been embarrassed by a massive algae bloom that has left swathes of offshore waters green and disrupted training for a number of Olympic sailing teams ahead of next month's Games. Qingdao, which has despatched 6,000 troops and thousands more volunteers to scoop up the green muck off beaches and offshore, was initially ordered by the Chinese government to remove all algae by July 15. "We are very optimistic about the clean-up effort," Qingdao Sailing Committee spokesman Wang Haitao told Reuters on Monday.

EDIT

Sailors, who last week were tacking to avoid large clumps of algae, on Monday said clean-up efforts had noticeably improved the training area but not completely cleaned it. "There's clearly no shortage of effort ... There's still small clumps rather than large islands like before," Morgan Reeser, a coach with the British team said.

The July 15 deadline does not include the miles of spoiled beaches where troops and volunteers are toiling to remove a seemingly endless supply of the weed.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49238/story.htm

[Zachstar]

1. Hopefully they are removing and selling it rather than leaving it sitting around to rot.

Because its when they rot that things get really bad for water environments.

[bhikkhu]

3. It should compost down to a wonderful fertilizer

I'd be very surprised if the Chinese didn't put it to this good use.

[Doctor Cynic]

2. THe price of seaweed is going to crash. n/t