The first deputy mayor and councilor for Beaches in the Mijas Town Hall, Jose Carlos Martinhas taken stock of the Shock Plan against algae in the municipality, for which 2,200 tons have been withdrawn in June at a cost of 115,000 euros.
“We have been fighting this problem for some time, which is becoming increasingly worrying on the Costa del Sol and we are fighting it with all our means”, assured the mayor, specifying that they have worked six tractors at night every day of the month to remove the algae and transfer them to the area for use in the process of composting and its use as biofertilizer.
“The removal of this invasive species, the transportation and the fee we pay to the recycling plant means that we have that approximate monthly investment to try to mitigate the negative effects of this serious problem that we have already transferred to the competent institutions which we hope can study a short-term solution”, he added.
Thus, this Shock Plan has two aspects: on the one hand, to eliminate all possible algae and, on the other, to avoid them. It is precisely for this second area that the Mijas City Council joined last year the Invasive Alga Forum with the aim of protecting the natural and indigenous marine heritage.
The Blue Biotechnology and Development Institute-IBYDA of the University of Malaga, the Campus of Global International Excellence of the Sea, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the Marine-Maritime Cluster of Andalusia, the Chair of Coastal Sciences of the University of Malaga and the Equilibrio Marino association constitute the ‘Foro Alga Invasora’ to face the biological invasion of the brown algae of Asian origin that seriously threatens the survival of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem.