The local lagoon’s disrupted ecosystem has unleashed millions of mosquitoes that are making life miserable for residents and tourists in the coastal Italian town of Orbetello.
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00:01Millions of mosquitoes for months on end.
00:06Greedily waiting at every well-lit patio door.
00:11In the Italian town of Orbitello,
00:13residents and tourists have been plunged into a nightmare.
00:17This is the situation with the mosquitoes here.
00:22Here we are.
00:23We can only hope that they disappear
00:25and that we survive the tourist season.
00:28But where did they all come from?
00:31And why the coastal town of Orbitello?
00:34Mario Cardoza runs the seaside restaurant E Pescatori.
00:38The once-bustling terrace is now deserted.
00:42Under conditions like these,
00:45it's impossible to use the terrace.
00:50The mosquitoes are attracted to light, especially at night-time.
00:54And then they fall onto the tablecloths.
00:58You can't serve dinner like that.
01:03The restaurant is located by the lagoon of Orbitello in Tuscany.
01:09The lagoon is connected to the sea via two canals.
01:13According to biologist Mauro Lenzi,
01:15the infestation is the result of an increasingly unbalanced ecosystem.
01:21He has been closely observing these changes for years.
01:25I was born here.
01:27I've lived by the lagoon since I was a child.
01:32Lenzi runs LeaLab,
01:34a local laboratory that monitors lagoon ecology and aquaculture.
01:37He regularly examines the water quality here.
01:40There's a lot of fertilizer in the lagoon.
01:44That leads to excessive growth of plants,
01:47especially microalgae.
01:49But other species also take advantage of the conditions.
01:52In summer, the large algae die off, sink to the bottom,
01:56and turn into decaying organic matter.
01:58The consequences for the ecosystem are dire.
02:06In the summer of 2024, residents watched helplessly as 200 tons of fish washed ashore.
02:13A 15 million euro loss for the fishing industry, triggering a mosquito epidemic.
02:22Their natural predators are gone, killed by toxic gases in the water.
02:26The mosquito larvae, on the other hand, they survive.
02:31They are very resilient.
02:37And so, Orbitello has been afflicted by massive swarms of mosquitoes for months.
02:42Residents are becoming increasingly distressed.
02:46If you don't have insect screens, you can't even open the windows for air.
02:51I have them, but the mosquitoes still find their way into the apartment.
02:56They find their way through the shutters, attracted by the light.
03:01So I still have them in the house.
03:03In the evening, before I go to bed, I have to vacuum them off the ceiling.
03:06The local council's solution is spraying pesticides, but Alessio Sagoni questions this approach.
03:16After all, the real issue here is the lagoon.
03:1926,000 people have signed his petition to save its ecosystem.
03:23We're very worried. Every time pesticides are sprayed, the city council announces that we should cover our vegetables in the garden, the children's toys.
03:36We should close the windows and not leave the house for an hour afterward.
03:41We don't know how harmful this is to our health.
03:43Alternatively, cleaning the lagoon floor with ships like these could be much more effective.
03:52But they're expensive to operate.
03:55There are three stationed here already, but only two are operational.
04:0070,000 to 80,000 tons of algae grow here every year.
04:05Really, we should be collecting at least 20%, but that hasn't happened yet.
04:09Only 1,500 tons were collected recently. Virtually nothing.
04:15You either do it right and collect 20 or 25,000 tons at least, or it's just wasteful.
04:28Until the problem is solved, Mario will have to put up with more empty tables.
04:32Since February, we've had a good 50% fewer guests than in previous years.
04:42That's a huge loss for us.
04:48And so the people of Orbitelo are in for a few more sleepless nights.
04:54A quiet question looms over the future of the lagoon with each passing sunset.
04:59We'll see you next time.
05:00We'll see you next time.