Sea-lettuce battle stepped up

TROUBLED WATERS: Rotting sea lettuce has become a regular menace seen around Tauranga's coastline.

Extra sand will be added to Matua peninsula and Memorial Park beaches to make sea-lettuce removal easier and more cost efficient.

By adding extra sand, Tauranga City Council hopes to reduce the amount of sea lettuce that washes up on beaches through creating an "elevated beach profile".

Bay of Plenty Regional Council granted consent to the Tauranga council in September for beach nourishment and sea lettuce removal at Memorial Park, Matua Peninsula and Maxwells Rd, consents manager Reuben Fraser said.

Rotting sea lettuce can produce enough hydrogen sulphide gas to be dangerous to human health.

The city council will excavate areas where rotting sea lettuce has been buried and backfill them with sand from a stockpile at Sulphur Point, sourced from dredging operations at the Port of Tauranga and from contractors J Swap.

The consent effectively gave permission to add extra sand to the beaches on the Matua peninsula and Memorial Park, city council spokesman Marcel Currin said.

"The driver behind this is sea lettuce clean-up.

"Adding sand to build up the beach in some places will make it easier and more cost-efficient for machinery to collect sea lettuce, especially around the rock groynes [breakwaters]."

Mr Currin said there were no immediate plans to apply large amounts of sand across the beaches. "Our ability to do that will be determined by budgets."

A total of 26,900cu m of sand would be needed for the backfilling and to "nourish" the shoreline.

This will create a high-tide beach that will be crested and sloped. Ecological effects were expected to be minor as the sites to be backfilled had "a very limited number of macrofauna".