Each year it causes the same alarm and each year an explanation is given; i.e., concerning the appearances of red/orange stains in the sea.

As on previous years the coastal town halls end up issuing press reports, explaining that the mysterious stains are not caused by chemical contamination but by the natural event, La Marea Roja.

La Marea Roja is caused either by micro-algae or fish ovulation and appears and disappears with the currents and tides.

Many of the times this event goes unperceived but when the density is very high then the characteristic stains appear.

Spanish fishermen know this phenomena as a ‘desove,’ or massive fish-egg spawning, typical of Spring, when certain kinds of fish come in close to the coast for this purpose.

It won’t kill you or harm you… although some have it that you will wake up the next day speaking and looking like the fishmen enemies of Troy Tempest from Stingray… Just saying!

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)