But the government has moved to reassure people that plans are in the pipeline to try to improve the situation when the tides are more favourable later this week.
Andy Hougardy, proprietor of Fort View Café, said that the conditions had deteriorated almost overnight and were now the worst he had seen in the ten years he has been in business in the area
And he said that this was causing problems for some businesses already struggling amid the Covid-19 crisis, with beachgoers choosing to head to different bays instead.
Speaking yesterday, he said: ‘There is a massive difference this morning – it is the worst I have ever seen it in the ten years that I have been down here. This morning the whole bay has turned green. I have never seen anything like it.
‘The beaches are the jewel in Jersey’s crown but when they let this sea lettuce just rot on the beach it is as if they are just leaving our beaches to rot.
‘Something needs to be done.’
Meanwhile, Vinny Donnelly, owner of Vinny’s kiosk on Victoria Avenue, said he was concerned about prospective customers being put off from visiting the bay by the smell of rotting sea lettuce.
‘It is going to affect my business – it is an eyesore. Something should be said about why it is continually occurring and why no solution has been put into place to combat it. Action needs to be taken. There is too much silence around it and, as far as I know, no one is addressing the situation.
‘When it starts to go rotten, like it has done in previous years, it smells like sewage.’
Over the years, various measures have been used in attempts to deal with the sea lettuce problem, which reoccurs every summer.
They have included collecting up to 70 tonnes of the material on a former military landing craft and dumping it offshore and digging furrows on the beach – aimed at helping sea lettuce spores drain back out to sea.
In 2016, a plan was put together to bring a specialist sea lettuce collection machine to Jersey from Brittany, which has also had its coastlines blighted by the weed. However, the plan was soon scrapped after the machine dramatically burst into flames.
Jacqui Carrel, environmental scientist for Save Our Shoreline Jersey, said the government now needed to be proactive and continue trying different solutions.
‘They need to stop being so reactive – they are doing their best with the current situation but they need to be planning for next year,’ she said. ‘This will continue happening year after year after year, so why on earth are they not putting strategies into place? All we can do is keep trying different things.’
She added: ‘I am not at all surprised that it has suddenly proliferated. What they are doing at the moment – just shoving it out to sea – is laughable.’
In a statement, a government spokesperson said that Growth, Housing and Environment workers were now trying to turn the weed into compost.
‘They say that they can’t take the sea lettuce for composting as they normally do, as it is on top of the stones by the sea wall and they can’t add stones to the process.
‘So they will be collecting the mix of sea lettuce and stones using Surf Rakes [beach cleaners] and dropping it down at the low-tide mark so the incoming tide washes the sea lettuce off and leaves the stones. They may also use lorries to clear the large amounts involved.
‘With neap tides coming later this week it is hoped that they can then harvest the stone-free sea lettuce when it is washed back in and left away from the wall, as the tides reduce in height. This holding measure will keep the beach as safe as possible for all concerned.’
