83% Of China's Coastal Waters Polluted By Sewage, Industrial Toxins In 2008 - AFP

Raw sewage and pollution from agricultural run-off polluted 83 percent of China's coastal waters in 2008, state media said Saturday.

China's coastal waters last year witnessed 68 red tides, or algae blooms, which feed off nutrients found in excess pollution and sap water of oxygen, killing off large amounts of sea life, Xinhua news agency said.

The State Oceanic Administration was cited as saying the algae blooms covered 13,700 square kilometres (5,500 square miles), an increase of more than 2,100 square kilometres over 2007, the report said.

While some experts said the red tides were a result of climate change and heavy rain, environmentalists believe they were largely due to sewage and agricultural pollutant run-off, it said. In August last year, one algae bloom caused havoc for the sailing competition of the Olympic Games when it engulfed waters surrounding the sailing venue in eastern China's Qingdao city.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/090117050556.s3bu0vap.html

of our seafood that is imported from those Chinese waters.

As I tell everyone I encounter at the supermarket, and see reaching for the frozen seafood. "Read the back of the package." You should see people jump and throw it back in the freezer when they actually bother to read that fish they have been eating is from China's polluted waters.

Wat

...first wondering what kind of water it may have been living in, then whether it had been caught in the open sea with one of those miles-long driftnets, then why a sane person would eat another animal he knew nothing whatsoever about...

and the sea level rise that has inundated the rice paddies just a little too much for rice growing.

Which is why I stick to polluted Thai shrimp instead of polluted Chinese fish.

Life is just one big insanity, no?

:rofl:

(do I really need to say :sarcasm: ?)