- Alfred Fornah
SIERRA LEONE SEAWEED INVASION!
Henry David Bayou, from the National Tourist Board and an environmental champion, witnesses first-hand the first of 2018's seaweed invasion at Lumley beach this past weekend. Every year seaweed, carried across the warming atlantic ocean - warming
linked to climate change -all the way from the Caribbean, washes up in Sierra Leone making fishing difficult for our artisan fishermen and despoiling our beautiful beaches risking tourism to Sierra Leone.
According to Mr Bayou:
"The unprecedented invasion of Sargassum Seaweed on our beautiful coast is being attributed to warming of the ocean due to global climate change."
Mr Bayou continued:
"This invasive species is dangerous to our coastal ecosystems and potentially harmful to ocean life and is caused by polluted water from nations across the world running into the ocean - things like discharge of nitrogen and phosphorous from agricultural run-off, waste water from major river basins, as well as iron and nutrient-rich Saharan dust all of which affect the balance in the ocean."
Once again the National Tourist Board Beach Marshals are determinedly on hand to tackle the seaweed invasion's annual challenge making sure our beautiful beaches stay that way. The cleaning is an adaptive strategy recommended by researchers as an immediate first response measure. To report a landing of seaweed phone or whatsap:
+232 76879222 / +232 77908976
The invader - Sargassum Seaweed - an annual challenge for our coastal communities and our beautiful beaches that stretch along the Atlantic Coast of Sierra Leone. Since 2011, warming seas linked to climate change enable this invasive seaweed - potentially harmful to ocean life - from the Caribbean to cross the Atlantic ocean presenting an annual challenge for our coastal communities’ livelihoods, particularly artisan fishing, tourism and eco-tourism.
Last year saw effective beach clean ups by the National Tourist Board Beach Marshalls, marred only by the tragic consequences of the Regent Mudslide, with the seaweed containerised and sent to the middle east for processing into bio-fertilizer.
We hope the new direction at the environmental protection agency with new appointee University South Florida Public Health Professor, Foday Moriba Jaward will fully coordinate with relevant agencies, the Mayor of Freetown and local government and coastal communities headmen for an effective response.
CAN WE PROFIT FROM THIS INVASION?
Perhaps some youth entrepreneur will soon see opportunity in this annual invasion and set up our own bio-fertilizer supply chain diversifying coastal community livelihoods collecting and processing bio-fertilizer; boosting our own agricultural yield with bio-fertilizer and even exporting bio-fertilizer to niche overseas markets. Then Sierra Leone would truely profit from this annual invasion!
