`Tengusa' Beds Disappearing from Deep Sea
The Asahi Shimbun
_______________
Tokyo (Japan):
For years, agar, the gelatinous, no-frills ingredient made from tengusa seaweed has been used to put the gel into kanten jelly, a food commonly found in Japanese refrigerators. Now, however, while in high demand as a diet food ingredient, tengusa is posing a mystery. It is disappearing from seabeds.
Once flourishing underwater tengusa beds in the shallows of the Izu Island chain south of Tokyo are facing creeping devastation, and no one seems to know why. Alarmed, the Tokyo metropolitan government set up an investigative team in August last year to research the problem in collaboration with Tokyo Metropolitan University. The work will continue until March 2008.
According to data collected by the metropolitan government's Tosho Norin Suisan Sogo center, which researches agriculture, forestry and fisheries issues pertaining to island ecosystems, the Izu Islands harvested 1,600 tons of tengusa in 1986. By 2002, the volume had plummeted to about 230 tons annually.
Hachijojima island has suffered most. Its tengusa crop began to show a sharp decline in 1995. In the past few years, little tengusa has been harvested. The scientists call the phenomenon isoyake (surf burnout), a situation in which entire patches of formerly lush algae growth on the seabed turn barren.
It was first witnessed around the Izu Island chain in the early 1980s. But as to exactly what is causing the red algae bushes of the genus gelidium to die is still unclear.
Oct 31, 2005
The Asahi Shimbun
_______________
Tokyo (Japan):
For years, agar, the gelatinous, no-frills ingredient made from tengusa seaweed has been used to put the gel into kanten jelly, a food commonly found in Japanese refrigerators. Now, however, while in high demand as a diet food ingredient, tengusa is posing a mystery. It is disappearing from seabeds.
Once flourishing underwater tengusa beds in the shallows of the Izu Island chain south of Tokyo are facing creeping devastation, and no one seems to know why. Alarmed, the Tokyo metropolitan government set up an investigative team in August last year to research the problem in collaboration with Tokyo Metropolitan University. The work will continue until March 2008.
According to data collected by the metropolitan government's Tosho Norin Suisan Sogo center, which researches agriculture, forestry and fisheries issues pertaining to island ecosystems, the Izu Islands harvested 1,600 tons of tengusa in 1986. By 2002, the volume had plummeted to about 230 tons annually.
Hachijojima island has suffered most. Its tengusa crop began to show a sharp decline in 1995. In the past few years, little tengusa has been harvested. The scientists call the phenomenon isoyake (surf burnout), a situation in which entire patches of formerly lush algae growth on the seabed turn barren.
It was first witnessed around the Izu Island chain in the early 1980s. But as to exactly what is causing the red algae bushes of the genus gelidium to die is still unclear.
Oct 31, 2005
