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Killer Algae

by Daniel Simberloff ; Alexandre Meinesz

Summary

In this probing investigation, a French scientist chronicles his unsuccessful attempts to persuade other scientists and politicians to eradicate a rapidly spreading imported algae. Meinesz warns of continual damage to the Mediterranean ecosystem unless the algae are controlled.

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Media Reviews

"[A] very interesting book...is really about. Meinesz, a professor of biology at the University of Nice, chronicles a biotic invasion that was manageably small when it was discovered in 1988 and has now become a full-scale environmental disaster. Meinesz's story in this sense is a sobering ecological one in which government inaction and bureaucratic obstructionism resulted in the failure to stop a serious menace when there was still time. But underlying that story is another one having to do with scientific information, its use and its misuse, its creation, deformation and manipulation....His book, ably translated by Daniel Simberloff, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, is utterly fascinating, not only because of the ecological battles he describes but also because of the wondrous natural phenomena involved....The invasion of Caulerpa taxifolia remains on the agenda of various European commissions and scientific bodies, so the story is not yet finished, but Meinesz has provided an instructive and absorbing account of where things stand and how they got that way."    -- Richard Bernstein

   -- New York Times

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
Published date: 1999
Size: 6.75 x 8.5 inches
Weight: 1.3 pounds
Pages: 360

Publisher's Notes

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 -- snow 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 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 weeded the small patch 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. 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.

Other Editions

• Hardcover - Univ of Chicago Pr (1999) - from $2.17
• Paperback Illustrated - Univ of Chicago Pr (2002) - from $8.90

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