Adriatic coast, sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus) are presently on the increase, but
whether a decreased consumption of them, altered algae vegetation, or a direct effluent inflow is responsible is not yet known (Ghirardelli 1973). Till now, no one has
yet been successful in explaining the mass increase of starfish (Acanthaster planci) in
the Pacific where they have destroyed considerable portions of coral reefs (Johannes
1975). Nor has anyone yet determined that it was marine pollution that caused the
eel-grass (Zostera marina) in the area of the North Atlantic to fall victim to an attack
of the parasitic fungus Labyrinthula macroystis (Rasmussen 1973).
Our thoughts are influenced by wishful thinking, even in this age that is enlightened
by the natural sciences. Just as in the middle ages a rain of blood, fish, and toad, as
well as other strange events in nature, were interpreted as harbingers of impending
disaster, many people at the present are prone to connect the strange emergence of
marine organisms with the effects of ocean pollution: The occurrence of especially
large jelly-fish off Dutch beaches, and of blooms which occasionally develop from
the diatom Coscinodiscus, or from blue-green algae, and the appearance of poisonous
phytoplankton which regularly occur in many warm seas as "red tides" and which
are also occasionally sighted in the North Sea. Serious symptoms of poisoning then
occur in humans which can be traced back to eating shellfish in which the poison
accumulates.
In August 1978 reddish-brown seawater occurred at the southern coast of Ireland.
Trout in aquaculture farms died, as well as about half of the shore snails (Litorina),
limpets (Patella), barnacles (Balanus) and actinia on rocky shores, and lug-worms
(Arenicola) on sandy beaches. This was understood as a warning, and the consumption of seafood was forbidden. The event followed a period of very quiet summer
weather without waves, even without swell from the Atlantic, and these conditions
were optimal for the growth of the plankton algae Gymnodinium and Gonyaulax
which, in their metabolism, produce the toxin. On this part of the shore there are no
waste water effluents (O'Sullivan 1978).
Natural communities of organisms are not static, but are subject to vascillations in
quantity. Man as a triggering agent is only partially responsible. Often, it seems that
a coincidence of a number of factors in constellation produces a result. To take note
of these is an important task, because the study of many different constellation
factors will alone furnish the key to an understanding of the causes.
36
whether a decreased consumption of them, altered algae vegetation, or a direct effluent inflow is responsible is not yet known (Ghirardelli 1973). Till now, no one has
yet been successful in explaining the mass increase of starfish (Acanthaster planci) in
the Pacific where they have destroyed considerable portions of coral reefs (Johannes
1975). Nor has anyone yet determined that it was marine pollution that caused the
eel-grass (Zostera marina) in the area of the North Atlantic to fall victim to an attack
of the parasitic fungus Labyrinthula macroystis (Rasmussen 1973).
Our thoughts are influenced by wishful thinking, even in this age that is enlightened
by the natural sciences. Just as in the middle ages a rain of blood, fish, and toad, as
well as other strange events in nature, were interpreted as harbingers of impending
disaster, many people at the present are prone to connect the strange emergence of
marine organisms with the effects of ocean pollution: The occurrence of especially
large jelly-fish off Dutch beaches, and of blooms which occasionally develop from
the diatom Coscinodiscus, or from blue-green algae, and the appearance of poisonous
phytoplankton which regularly occur in many warm seas as "red tides" and which
are also occasionally sighted in the North Sea. Serious symptoms of poisoning then
occur in humans which can be traced back to eating shellfish in which the poison
accumulates.
In August 1978 reddish-brown seawater occurred at the southern coast of Ireland.
Trout in aquaculture farms died, as well as about half of the shore snails (Litorina),
limpets (Patella), barnacles (Balanus) and actinia on rocky shores, and lug-worms
(Arenicola) on sandy beaches. This was understood as a warning, and the consumption of seafood was forbidden. The event followed a period of very quiet summer
weather without waves, even without swell from the Atlantic, and these conditions
were optimal for the growth of the plankton algae Gymnodinium and Gonyaulax
which, in their metabolism, produce the toxin. On this part of the shore there are no
waste water effluents (O'Sullivan 1978).
Natural communities of organisms are not static, but are subject to vascillations in
quantity. Man as a triggering agent is only partially responsible. Often, it seems that
a coincidence of a number of factors in constellation produces a result. To take note
of these is an important task, because the study of many different constellation
factors will alone furnish the key to an understanding of the causes.
36