Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

Last week the first sea lettuce clean-up for the season was carried out at Kulim Park in Tauranga. Approximately 40 cubic metres of sea lettuce was cleared.

While Kulim Park is the first public area where substantial accumulation has been a problem, at this time of the year the growth of sea lettuce is rapid and the situation at any beach can change from being clear of sea lettuce one day to having huge build ups two or three days later. An example of this is what appears to have been a large dump of sea lettuce on Main Beach Mount Maunganui the previous weekend - much of which had been picked up again on a following high tide and carried away.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council is keeping a close eye on all of the usual build up spots (Ongare Point, Kauri Point, Pahoia, Fergusson Park, Memorial Park, Tye Park, Rotary Park, Maungatapu foreshore and others) and our contractor is ready to act at fairly short notice.

The council also is continuing to experiment with sea lettuce treatment. Our clean-up contractor is doing a trial with a screw press, to see whether we can reduce the volume and weight of sea lettuce to reduce cartage costs. There is also an orchard and home garden mulching trial using sea lettuce, starting on an avocado and kiwifruit orchard in Te Puna

Unfortunately, we expect to have quite a bit of sea lettuce around this year. Please phone the regional council, 0800 884 883, if you find a nuisance build-up in your favourite public space.

If you have any views on this or any other issue, please email me: neesj@xtra.co.nz or phone me, 07 579 5150. Or you can check out my website: www.janenees.co.nz