A dispute about non-native algae has broken out in India between beverage giant PepsiCo and the Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), which is based in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. Institute researchers originally imported the alga Kappaphycus alvarezii for research; in 2001 PepsiCo began cultivating it for the food thickener carrageenan in the Gulf of Mannar marine bioreserve, along India's southeastern coast. Reporting in Current Science last month, scientists from Thiagarajar College in Madurai say that corals fringing an island in the gulf are being smothered to death by the algae.