Not only the high prices could lead to choosing the mountains instead of the sea this summer. The water of the Mediterranean is warming and here is the proliferation of algae and strange beings.
The first to notice it, a few months ago, were the fishermen who found themselves with their nets, pulled to the ground, full of “fire worms”, with a thousand spines, brightly coloured, capable of reproducing if cut in two, now it could be the turn of swimmers, because the vermocane is scary for this summer season in Calabria, Puglia and Sicily. Climate change and the heat of the sea cause them to reproduce excessively. And the alarm is not irrational because even the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics has taken action with an information campaign.
The fireworm, so called by fishermen, has a body of bristles with a bright livery and has stinging toxins which, if it feels in danger, it can also hurl. It is 20 to 30 centimeters long, and is a polychaete that easily reproduces, living among the rocks, in the seagrass meadows, but also among the sand. The only thing to do is not to cut him in two, but to stay away from him. When it comes into contact with a human it causes pain, burning, edema, itching and even numbness.
The sea of Puglia is expected to be invaded by it and it is probable that it will keep company with the toxic, thin, filamentous algae, soft as velvet, but deadly because it can even cause fever, dizziness, sore throat, headache .
There have been holidays ruined by the proliferation of algae, it happened in Campo Marino, in the Taranto area, in Torre Canne, but also in Apani in the province of Brindisi, Torre Columena and Leporano in the Tarantino area. It will happen again this summer, announced by ARPA which has active monitoring for the summer season, with the aim of verifying, in some coastal stretches intended for bathing, the qualitative and quantitative presence of the potentially toxic microalgae.
The Agency will constantly monitor twenty sites from June to September – with a fortnightly frequency – distributed across the entire regional territory and representative of the coastal typology potentially affected by the presence of the species. This year the ARPA will also have to deal with vermocane and, above all, it will have to immediately start a press campaign to inform the people of Puglia and tourists about the news.
