Workers yesterday remove green algae from the sea at Qingdao, which will host the Olympic sailing events. Li Ziheng

    QINGDAO: It will take Qingdao, venue of the Olympic sailing events, about two weeks to clean an outbreak of algae covering its coastline, the local government said on Sunday.

    The coastline has been covered with a bright green algae since last May. It extends several hundred meters.

    The algae, known as enteromorpha prolifera, was detected 60 nautical miles east off Dagong Island by the North China Sea branch of the State Oceanic Administration.

    Experts found the algae had come from the central region of the Yellow Sea and had no affect on the water quality of the sea off the Qingdao coast.

    Wang Shulian, vice-director of the Qingdao oceanic and fishery department, said the outbreak had no link to the environmental conditions of Qingdao.

    However, it has, to some extent, affected the preparations of some Olympic yachtsmen.

    Teams from at least 30 countries and regions are training in Qingdao.

    Yuan Zhiping, assistant to the chairman of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee, said the algae had covered part of the training area and some parts of the sailing routes.

    As of Saturday the algae had affected a total area of 13,000 sq km. More than 32 percent, or 15.86 sq km of the sea area for the Olympics was covered by the algae.

    Qingdao has mobilized more than 10,000 workers and more than 1,000 vessels to clean up the algae.

    Wang said besides the clean-up, more methods to block the algae from further spreading will be adopted.

    "We have stressed to all the priority of this clean-up campaign, and hope it will be completed by July 15, Yuan said.

    The Olympic sailing events will be held in Qingdao from Aug 9 to 23.