Seaweed scent firing Kilkee imaginations

KILKEE Town Councillor Elaine Haugh Hayes has asked Clare County Council to seek professional advice regarding the removing of seaweed from Kilkee beach and the movement of sand from the East End to the West End. This month’s town council meeting heard however, that birds eat the seaweed and appear to be dependent on it.

 

Councillor Haugh Hayes said the presence of huge amounts of seaweed on the beach was causing a problem.

Mayor of Kilkee, Claire Haugh, asked if the seaweed could be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.

“Is there any merit in burying the seaweed? Could we dig a massive hole, throw it in and bury it in the sand?” she queried.

“It’s supposed to feed the birds,” Councillor Lily Marrinan Sullivan replied. “Although I can’t understand what the birds fed on before we had to leave the seaweed below on the beach.

“When I was a child, the seaweed was taken away every week to the iodine factory. As the seaweed was being taken away sand was brought in and the birds all survived. I can’t understand why the feeding of the birds has now become more ­important than anything else,” she added.

“I just feel there has to be some solution,” Councillor Haugh Hayes stated. “We can’t physically move it because Blue Flag regulations say we can’t move it from the beach if we want the Blue Flag. There has to be some control management on the beach. There’s nobody really looking after the beach. I know the digger goes on it and moves stuff every now and again. The sand is absolutely black from the iodine from the seaweed. Even if we could just put some new sand on it? We need somebody to come in and look at that beach. Definitely the beach has to be looked after some way,” she suggested.

Councillor Haugh Hayes also claimed that sand should be moved to one side of the beach from the other.

“I just feel that there’s a shift of sand on the beach. When the pier was built over on the East End, the shift of the sand changed all over the beach. It’s a serious problem in the West End. The sand level has gone way down and as for the seaweed, it’s very natural. It brings in the birds and they all feed off it but after three weeks it’s not seaweed anymore. It smells and people’s imagination goes beyond the seaweed,” she suggested.

“There needs to be sand brought from the East End back over to the West End. I know it’s a long haul but it’s only a couple of times during the summer and it really needs to happen. That would bury the black seaweed,” Councillor Paddy Collins said.

Town clerk John Corry said Clare County Council was examining the situation.

“I spoke with Paul Moroney, senior engineer in the environment section in Clare County Council on this particular matter. What he indicated is that he wanted to look into it further and he’d come back with a response. He indicated that he’d like to talk to Councillor Haugh Hayes,” the town clerk said.