SEAWEED washed up on Altona Beach is causing havoc and headaches for residents and beachgoers.

Hobsons Bay Council is struggling to remove the mass of weed washing up on the foreshore this summer.

In December alone, the council removed about 1800 tonnes of seaweed from the beach, compared to about 270 tonnes in December 2007.

One beachgoer told Star that the seaweed stank last Tuesday night after it had been sitting in the heat, and that the mounds of it looked awful.

Altona Ward councillor Tony Briffa said the seaweed had been creating a smell and he had many residents contact him about it.

“Once I explain that the council is doing its best to keep up with cleaning it, they have been understanding,” he said.

“It’s just a huge amount of seaweed, that it is difficult for the council to keep up.

“In December the council made 212 trips to landfill in Werribee, where it dumps the seaweed.

“It uses three eight tonne trucks which have been making about seven trips a day to landfill.”

Mr Briffa said the seaweed was being scooped from the water and dumped on the beach, where it had to remain for a few days to dry out.

“Once it is dried, the council can then remove it from the beach.”

Victoria’s Environmental Protection Authority chief Mick Bourke said he admitted that it was bad what he had seen at Altona Beach.

“But I have seen it near that about 10 years ago and there has been a fair bit of work done over the years to see what was causing it,” he said.

“There was worry it was being driven by the sewerage outfall there.

“There was actually some bay modelling done in the mid 1990s by the CSIRO which showed how the currents flowed around Port Phillip Bay and Hobsons Bay.

“This also showed that at various times there is high seagrass growth in the bay and the current just brings it onto Altona Beach.

“It’s a natural part of the bay’s function.

“It’s always done it, go back to early 1900s and there would be recordings of masses of seaweed.

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