ABOVE: Diseased-looking kelp potentially infected with Maullinia
DAVE CRAW
Across the Southern Hemisphere, patches of seaweed are getting sick. Scientists have found strange yellow growths called galls on kelp in Latin America, southern Africa, and Australasia. The disease is caused by a pathogenic protist that has somehow travelled thousands of miles to infect its hosts.
The parasite in question is called Maullinia, and only a handful of studies have investigated it to date. Little is known about exactly how widespread it is or how much it may harm kelp but scientists recently found it in yet another location: New Zealand. Previous studies had detected Maullinia in Chile, South Africa’s Marion Island, and Australia. Marine biologists lack a full understanding of how kelp is affected by the infections, but some say it’s nevertheless a cause for concern.
It was while she was working at Australian National University in 2017 that marine biologist ...
