Craig Cooper: Good on clean-up crew

Locals try to clean up the red seaweed on the beach at Waipu Cove.

An illegal clean-up operation is under way to rid Waipu Cove of tonnes of seaweed, and good on the locals doing it.

Waipu Cove locals have removed 400 tonnes of seaweed in the past few days after waking up to a beach stained with red weed on Saturday.

Technically, resource consent is needed to remove the seaweed. But a resource consent application takes 20 working days - and if the clean-up is left that long, the "pu" in Waipu will take on new meaning.

Northland Regional Council (NRC) is the region's environmental watchdog - why doesn't it get rid of it? Because apparently there is no legislative mechanism within its structure to allow it to do so - the weed isn't deemed a hazard so the NRC can't treat it reactively.

It may not be hazardous right now but locals have seen and smelt this sort of thing before.

In 20 working days Waipu Cove will rival Rotorua for stink, but the pong will have zero attraction for tourists.

So locals have got stuck in - they aren't being reckless, in fact they have had advice from the NRC on how to do it properly.

That was before Christmas, when a smaller amount of weed washed up.

This time it's everywhere. And not just on the beach.

The sea off Waipu Cove is, as Alexandra Newlove writes in today's paper, a thick stew of red seaweed. Doing nothing is not an option, the locals have to act.

The seaweed is bound for local farms - it may even make good fertiliser. Hopefully the NRC is watching closely and there is no damage being done to the environment.

And if there is no damage being done then hopefully the NRC will not prosecute a group of well-meaning people who are effectively doing the NRC's job for them.

Now that would really cause a stink.