"Italy shuts beach after tropical toxic algae surfaces"

[GreenPartyVoter]

ROME (Reuters) - Environmental experts have closed a stretch of beach near the northern Italian city of Genoa after toxic algae poisoned dozens of bathers, an official said on Tuesday.

Around 80 people needed hospital attention Sunday and Monday because of the microscopic algae, identified as Ostreopsis ovata, which is usually found in the tropics.

<snip>

"It is the first time we have seen such an anomalous concentration of this algae in Liguria," said Federico Grasso, a spokesman for the regional environmental protection agency.

"It has been very hot recently and the sea has been very calm, which probably encouraged this phenomenon."

http://reuters.iwon.com/article/20050719/2005-07-19T164047Z_01_L19176753_RTRIDST_0_ODD-ITALY-BEACH-DC.html

[jobycom]

1. Isn't this sort of how "Sean of the Dead" started?

[Karenina]

2. It's not nice

to fool with Mother Nature.

[Moondog]

3. Sounds similar to the

Red Tide we get on the FL Gulf coast. I don't know the proper name of the micro-organism that causes it, though, so I can't say if it is identical. All the same, nasty stuff, that.