“It is a time-consuming job that started on Monday and is being done with heavy machinery. Given the large amount of algae, we expect the removal to last for a week”, Álvaro Bila told Lusa agency.

The high concentration of algae on the beaches of Rocha and Vau, in the municipality of Portimão, in the district of Faro, has been occurring for two weeks, a phenomenon that "began to have greater visibility" last week with the spring tides, said the mayor.

“Although the accumulated quantity of these organisms is very significant, there was no need to close the bathing areas, unlike what happened last month, with the closure, for two days, of Barranco das Canas beach”, he stressed.

In total, said the mayor, “120 trucks loaded with algae were removed from Alemão beach, which represents several tons of the marine organisms.”

Since 2021, large concentrations of brown and red algae have been recurrent on beaches in the western (western) Algarve.

The accumulation of these invasive species has led municipal and regional entities to classify this as “an already normal situation”, according to the mayor of that municipality in the district of Faro.

“Given the recurrence of the phenomenon, since 2021 we have launched an annual procedure worth €50,000 to clean the beaches, as the municipality does not have heavy machinery for this type of service”, explained Álvaro Bila.

According to the mayor, the cleaning of the beaches only began on Monday “because there was an expectation that the sea would take back the algae”.

“As this did not happen, we had to move on to cleaning with heavy machinery, carried out by a private company”, noted the mayor, stressing that, so far, no contamination of the water caused by algae has been detected.

The phenomenon is monitored by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), which analyses the quality of bathing waters daily.