'Lungs Of The Mediterranean' In Tunisia At Risk Due To Climate Change And Why It's Worrisome

Just as human actions are devastating forests on land, scientists warn that the destruction is equally bad under water. Human activity is driving the grass under the sea to destruction at speed ¡ª with dire environmental and economic impacts.

Significance of "the lungs" of sea

Under the Mediterranean waters off Tunisia, green seagrass meadows provide vital marine habitats for the fishing fleets and an erosion buffer for the beaches the tourism industry depends on.

'Lungs of the Mediterranean' at risk. #AFP
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¡ª AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) May 2, 2022

Even more importantly, seagrass is such a key store of carbon and producer of oxygen ¡ª critical to slowing the devastating impacts of climate change ¡ª that the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet) calls it ¡°the lungs" of the sea.

'Posidonia oceanica'

Named Posidonia oceanica after the Greek god of the sea Poseidon, seagrass spans the Mediterranean seabed from Cyprus to Spain, sucking in carbon and curbing water acidity. ¡°Posidonia oceanica¡­ is one of the most important sources of oxygen provided to coastal waters," MedWet, a 27-member regional intergovernmental network, says.

"Posidonia oceanica... is one of the most important sources of oxygen provided to coastal waters," MedWet, a 27-member regional intergovernmental network, says.

AFP

Why it's essential

Tunisia, on the North African coastline, "has the largest meadows" of all - spreading over 10,000 sq km, marine ecologist Rym Zakhama-Sraieb said, pointing to its key carbon-capture role.

The underwater flowering plants absorb three times more blue carbon - the term used to describe the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the ocean and coastal ecosystems - than a forest, and they can store it for thousands of years, she said.

"We need Posidonia to capture a maximum of carbon," Zakhama-Sraieb said.

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What destroyed it

But a dangerous cocktail of rampant pollution, illegal fishing using bottom trawling nets that rip up the seagrass, and a failure by people to appreciate its life-giving importance is spelling its demise.

Tunisian marine biologist Yassine Ramzi Sghaier said the grass is crucial for a country already gripped by a grinding economic crisis. "All of Tunisia's economic activity depends on Posidonia," Sghaier said.

AFP

"It is the largest provider of jobs," he claimed, noting that at least 1,50,000 people are directly employed in fishing and tens of thousands in the tourism industry. Destruction has been swift, and replacement slow. The aquatic plant, also known as Neptune grass, grows less than 5cm a year.

Ben Hmida said the creation of four protected marine zones could help Posidonia, but that action was needed on a far wider scale. "If nothing is done to protect the whole Tunisian Posidonia, it will be a catastrophe," he said.

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