INDONESIA, May 14, 2010 - The high rate of pollution in the sea has sparked algal blooms, which can pose a serious threat to the country's fishery sector amid the government's plan to boost fishery production, a seminar heard Friday.

The Indonesian Maritime Council warned algal blooms, also known as the red tide, could grow to an uncontrollable rate if there was no improvement in watershed management to minimize the influx of pollutants into the sea.

'The red tide may hamper the government's target to produce up to 350 million tons of fishery products per year since about 70 percent of the target would be from marine culture,' the council's secretary, Rizal Max Rompas told a seminar Friday.

The pollutants from land agriculture, industries and domestic waste into the sea through the rivers can increase nutrients that will feed the rapid proliferation of the harmful algae, he said.

The red tide could reduce oxygen and increase toxins that would threaten the massive death of marine biota such as fish.

Pollutants will also worsen the quality of sea water that can disturb the population of marine organisms.

Red tides can be seen with the rapid change of sea water colors including red, green and brown.

Rizal said that a number of red tide cases were found in Indonesian waters since the 1980s, causing the death of many fish. - The Jakarta Post