© Jianan Yu/Reuters
Green algae outbreak in 2008, in Chaolu lake in Hefei, Anhui province, endangered water supply in nearby cities and posed a great threat to aquatic life.
Green algae outbreak in 2008, in Chaolu lake in Hefei, Anhui province, endangered water supply in nearby cities and posed a great threat to aquatic life.
Cui Wenlin, an official with the State Oceanic Administration, said the slimy bloom is the biggest China has seen since a huge outbreak in 2008 threatened to disrupt sailing events during the Beijing Summer Olympics. Before the games, thousands of soldiers, volunteers and fishing boats were recruited to clean up that bloom, which sailors took to calling "The Fairway" and "The Carpet."
The current outbreak has nearly doubled in size since it was first spotted June 14 near eastern China's Shandong province and now measures about 110 square miles (300 square kilometers), said Cui, who works at the administration's North China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center.
Winds are pushing the mass toward the resort city of Qingdao, and it was 6-12 miles (10-20 kilometers) from shore late Friday, he said.
