Killer Algae - Hardcover

Meinesz, Alexandre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226519228 ISBN 13: 9780226519227

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1999

Synopsis

Two decades ago, a Stuttgart zoo imported a lush, bright green seaweed for its aquarium. Caulerpa taxifolia was captively bred by the zoo and exposed, for years, to chemicals and ultraviolet light. Eventually a sample of it found its way to the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, then headed by Jacques Cousteau. Fifteen years ago, while cleaning its tanks, that museum dumped the pretty green plant into the Mediterranean.

This supposedly benign little plant—that no one thought could survive the waters of the Mediterranean—has now become a pernicious force. Caulerpa taxifolia now covers 10,000 acres of the coasts of France, Spain, Italy, and Croatia, and has devastated the Mediterranean ecosystem. And it continues to grow, unstoppable and toxic. When Alexandre Meinesz, a professor of biology at the University of Nice, discovered a square-yard patch of it in 1984, he warned biologists and oceanographers of the potential species invasion. His calls went unheeded. At that point, one person could have pulled the small patch out and ended the problem. Now, however, the plant has defeated the French Navy, thwarted scientific efforts to halt its rampage, and continues its destructive journey into the Adriatic Sea.

Killer Algae is the biological and political horror story of this invasion. For despite Meinesz's pleas to scientists and the French government, no agency was willing to take responsibility for the seaweed, and while the buck was passed, the killer algae grew. And through it all, the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco sought to exculpate itself. In short, Killer Algae—part detective story and part bureaucratic object lesson—is a classic case of a devastating ecological invasion and how not to deal with it.

"[U]tterly fascinating, not only because of the ecological battles [Meinesz] describes but also because of the wondrous natural phenomena involved."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times

"Akin to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Killer Algae shows the courage of a voice in the wilderness."—Choice

"A textbook case of how not to manage an environmental disaster."—Kirkus Reviews

"Meinesz's story is a frightening one, reading more like a science fiction thriller than a scientific account."—Publishers Weekly

About this title

About the Authors

Alexandre Meinesz is professor at the University of Nice–Sophia Antipolis and the author of Killer Algae, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Daniel Simberloff is the Nancy Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee and the translator of Killer Algae as well as The Art of Being a Parasite by Claude Combes, also published by the University of Chicago Press.


Daniel Simberloff is the Nancy Gore Hunger Chair of Excellence in Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His books include Invasive Species: What Everyone Needs to Know and Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions. He was formerly editor in chief of Biological Invasions.

Reviews

Caulerpa taxifolia is a beautiful green alga that has served as a decoration and a food in aquariums displaying multicolored tropical fishes [see "Caulerpa," by William P. Jacobs; Scientific American, December 1994]. One of the places that acquired cuttings of it was the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, which in cleaning out its tanks in 1984 apparently dumped some of the alga into the waters of the Mediterranean below its windows. Discovered there in the same year, it occupied one square meter of Mediterranean bottom. The presumption was that this tropical alga would not survive in the cool waters of the region. But it is a ferociously hardy organism that "grows everywhere, from the surface to the lower limits of underwater vegetation," and by late 1997 it had spread over more than 4,600 hectares (10,000 acres) of the sea. Meinesz, a professor of biology at the University of Nice and a specialist in Caulerpa algae, documents this ecological explosion and recounts his efforts to warn of the dangers posed by C. taxifolia to the Mediterranean ecosystem. He is angry--at the authorities who "do not like to hear from Cassandras," at reductionist biologists who "have failed to grasp the role species play in nature" and at the vagaries in scientific communication that helped to spread confusion over the impact of the algae. He hopes that his story will "help to enrich reflection on the human role in the management of our natural heritage."

One man's struggle to rid the Mediterranean of invading algae that have now spread from France to the coasts of Spain, Italy, and even Croatia. Meinesz (Biology/University of Nice), an algae specialist and diver, sounded the first alarm in the early 1980s, when a patch of Caulerpa taxifolia was found in waters beneath Monacos Oceanographic Museum. The algae, noted for their graceful fronds, had been used to adorn the museum's aquaria and were flushed into the sea in ordinary maintenance. No one suspected that a tropical species could survive Mediterranean winter temperatures. But it did, and this grim chronology provides an exhausting but gripping account of what happened next. When Meinesz and his colleagues alerted museum officials, government agencies, and fellow scientists of the danger, museum officials refused to acknowledge culpability and accused Meinesz and Co. of being alarmists bent on obtaining more research funding. The algae are not in fact lethal to humans, but their prodigious ability to spread and choke off other flora and fauna threatens habitats and biodiversity. Meinesz sometimes overstates his case, especially in bitter concluding remarks inveighing against the media (which fanned the flames of fear or toadied to officials) and deploring the decline of research in the natural sciences in favor of reductionist molecular biology. Yet the press was useful in getting the word out, and without molecular genetics the nature of the mutant algae would not be known. Cleansing the Mediterranean of Caulerpa appears to be a lost cause, but with E.O. Wilson and other biologists speaking out on biodiversity and near-daily headlines about global threats to habitat or lethal diseases carried by invading organisms, we can hope that the lessons of ecology are not lost on the public. A textbook case of how not to manage an environmental disaster. (5 line drawings, 7 maps) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Could the diversity of the Mediterranean's sea life be destroyed by one alga? In this compelling account of an ecological problem gone awry, French marine biologist Meinesz relates his harrowing attempts to alert the world to the threat posed to the Mediterranean Sea by a tropical alga escaped from the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. Meinesz demonstrates how the cold-adapted Caulerpa taxifolia has, kudzulike, begun to overrun millions of acres of diverse, undersea habitat. Healthy ecosystems that previously harbored numerous species are becoming algal monocultures. In addition to the ecological damage, the alga's rampant growth has provoked a decline in the fishing and tourism industries. Meinesz's story is a frightening one, reading more like a science fiction thriller than a scientific account. Officials at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, refusing to acknowledge their role in the alga's original release, undertook a major public relations campaign against Meinesz, attacking his credibility while praising the virtues of the alga. Amid the press reports, averted eyes of governmental officials and broken promises of research funding, the alga spread, disrupting new habitats. Although the book focuses on the French reaction to one algal species, David Quammen (Song of the Dodo) points out in his foreword: "This is not a little book about some noxious alga. This is a little book... about life on Earth." (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This book is not just a call to arms but the account of one man's struggle to raise awareness of a biological invasion. Biologist Meinesz recounts in meticulous detail his discovery and tracking of Caulerpa taxifoliaAa foreign algae growing in the MediterraneanAand his repeated attempts to gain the attention of officials who, had they acted promptly, could have stopped the algae from spreading irreversibly through the sea. Much of the book describes what Meinesz calls "a dialogue of the deaf," with three factions working at cross-purposes: scientists expressing grave concerns, public officials downplaying these concerns, and the press interested in the most sensational story. The text is written for non-specialists and, with its play of human drama, is certainly gripping. And although the story becomes a little lengthy and repetitive as we follow the author through one futile encounter after another, overall, this is an effective cautionary tale. Recommended for all academic libraries and public libraries.AMarianne Stowell Bracke, Univ. of Houston Libs.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226519228
• ISBN 13: 9780226519227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360