Warming sea temperatures, pollution and dynamite fishing are causing Adriatic marine forests to disappear, a worrying trend which prompted Albanian experts to join a Mediterranean programme to restore them with 'good algaes'. The large brown algae forests, a hot-spot of biodiversity, are shrinking in both the Adriatic and the Ionian sea. Due to lack of historical data it is difficult to quantify the decline of Cystoseira, a genus of brown algae which provides a key habitat for many species serving as food as well as spawing and nursery areas. Accelerated coastal urbanisation, discharge of agricultural or industrial waste waters, trawling, sedimentation as well as practicres like harvesting date mussels with dynamite or jackhammers to break the rocks where they live also devastate the seabed, experts warn. Since January 2019, biologists from the university's laboratory participate in an experiment aimed at restoring the brown algae, which is conducted by a dozen institutes in the Mediterranean. In the laboratory, scientists grow fertilised Cystoseira algae cells in aquariums. The tiny algaes fix themselves on stones that are later immersed in the sea. In a few weeks, the scientists will check if the algaes are established, an experiment that should enable them to develop protocols for marine forests restoration. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES