Despite the outbreak of two massive red tides, seafood on the Chinese market is perfectly safe to eat, the State Oceanic Administration said yesterday.

Two giant toxic red tides, also known as algae blooms, hit the Bohai Sea over the weekend, prompting the country's oceanic body to tighten the examination of shellfish along portions of the marine coast.

The Bohai Sea borders Tianjin Municipality in north China, Shandong Province of east China and Liaoning Province in northeast China.

The first red tide occurred on Friday, and covered about 1,850 square kilometers of sea area on the first day, officials said. It emerged near the mouth of the Yellow River.

The second red tide began on Saturday and blanketed an area of 3,200 square kilometers and gathered near Tianjin.

"With the help of modern technology, we correctly forecast the occurrence of the red tide in early June," said Chen Lianzeng, deputy director of the State Oceanic Administration. "The local authorities along the sea coast have closely monitored the tide's development and carried out the emergency response measures in time."

He added that officials have to safeguard the health of the public by enhancing inspections of shellfish and by helping ocean aquacultural industry workers minimize their losses.

Fishery officials in Tianjin Municipality and east China's Shandong Province took samples at all the shellfish-raising bases in the red tide areas and have not yet found any polluted seafood.

If samples fail to pass the examination, the shellfish harvesting will be shut down immediately.

"All the seafood from the red-tide polluted areas will be strictly examined before entering the market," said Wang Shicheng, a government official in charge of ocean and fisheries in Shandong, the country's key fishery production province.

Marine experts said the red tides will continue for several days and are likely to grow.

Red tides are large algae blooms that can accumulate dangerous levels of the neurotoxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning and suffocate sea creatures.

China in recent years has been witnessing rising occurrences of red tides. In May alone, Chinese sea areas were hit by 34 red tide outbreaks, affecting more than 10,000 square kilometres, 3,000 square kilometers more than the same month last year.

According to Ma Deyi, director of National Marine Environment Monitoring Center, red tides are the "result of worsening human and industrial land pollution that affects sea water and consequently deteriorates oceanic ecology."

In turn, the situation creates ideal conditions for toxic algae to proliferate.

China has set up 33 red tide monitoring zones in sea areas frequently attacked.

(China Daily June 16, 2004)