Beaches of Brittany by toxic algae

A wild boar on the coast of Britain. Boars around 31 have recently died off the coast, suspected of drinking water contaminated by green algae. Photography: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images

Growing fears about algae potentially lethal to accumulate on the North coast of Brittany after carcasses of wild boars of washing in the picturesque resort of c?tes d'Arm?r.

Three dead wild boar were found floating in the water or slumped on the muddy banks of the Gouessant estuary in Morieux Wednesday when 18 were found dead the previous day. Found a total of 31 animals killed this month.

Close to the river beach of Saint-Maurice has been closed because of stinking heaps of rotting seaweed mud. The local mayor said that the Beach had been cordoned off because the mud could harbour pockets of toxic gas fatal to humans if he slipped in the same.

Local environmentalists long have campaigned against the dangers of what is known as Seaweeds from Brittany "killer". It has been affecting the rugged North Coast Breton for decades but has increased in recent years, causing the death of a worker that was removed in 2009, as well as the killing of dogs and a horse walking on the beach.

Environmentalists blamed the spread of the algae in nitrate fertilizers in intensive swine, sheep and dairy products from Britain, saying that the nitrates of flow in the river and entering the sea.

The Government has launched a plan long term mass to clean up the beaches of seaweed, carry away the harmful growth with bulldozers. But activists say that nothing will change unless the food industry and Agriculture of powerful Britain reduces its use of nitrates. The algae is harmless until it dries and then decomposes, releasing a foul odor. Pockets of toxic gas can be trapped under the bark.

Carried out autopsies on the bodies of wild boar, which also were being analyzed to sulfide, a poisonous gas.

But officials said it was too early to say how the animals died, or if green algae is blamed. A formal analysis of the water in the estuary found green algae "above the warning level, but below the level of danger".

An officer of local police, Philippe deeds, said the dead boar: "[something else] were not sick and not drowning".

Yvette Doré, the Socialist Mayor of the neighbouring area of Hillion, told Le Monde he was "under no illusions" and the death of the wild boar was "most certainly" linked to the toxic gas from the green algae. At Hillion in 2009 a 27-year vet was dragged unconscious from a patch of algae deep decomposing once his horse collapsed and died just a few minutes of smoke in the mud that was crowded on the beach.

Local environmentalist group Eau et Rivières de Bretagne suggested that boars could have been murdered by drinking water contaminated with algae and harmful gases. This year, thousands of tons of green algae have been deleted from the coast of Brittany. In Finistère, the amount of algae has grown since last year.

In a front-page editorial entitled, green algae: the unbearable denial, Le Monde said that the French State, slave to pressure groups, minimizing the role of agricultural pollution in the proliferation of harmful algae.

Environmentalists argue that politicians are too fears alienating the vote of agriculture before next year's presidential election and there was no large steps in the reduction of nitrates.

Britain is the largest region of France, with a high concentration of pigs, poultry and livestock farms.

In a visit to Britain this month French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended farmers, saying they were not guilty of green algae. He dismissed as "environmental fundamentalists" those people who campaigned loudly on the link of nitrate to the algae.

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