FELIXSTOWE has been told to expect a deluge of seaweed this summer.The green and brown marine plant, which can strike fear in many people especially if they swim in to its tangle, has grown in abundance since the summer welcomed clearer water in the sea at the resort.

FELIXSTOWE has been told to expect a deluge of seaweed this summer.

The green and brown marine plant, which can strike fear in many people especially if they swim in to its tangle, has grown in abundance since the summer welcomed clearer water in the sea at the resort.

"It's the biggest amount of seaweed I have seen," said historian and beach walker Peter Wheatley.

His concern followed a report in The Evening Star last Saturday that anglers had left litter crowding the beach.

Mr Wheatley, of Colneis Road, Felixstowe, who is also a keen scuba diver said that the increase in seaweed has been due to the clear water residents and tourists saw off the resort's coast this summer.

He said that the clear water enabled the sunlight to get further down to the sea bed, encouraging more seaweed to grow and beach walkers are starting to see the result.

In the summer the Star reported how experts were baffled by the clarity of the water. Those who had reported the cleaner water had mainly noticed the phenomenon on the East beach in Undercliff Road East.

This area had seen new defences, including wishbone-shaped reefs and rock groynes and it was suggested that the condition of the water was effected by these structures.

But Mr Wheatley had his own theory and believed that the clarity of the water was due to the fact that between Finland and Sweden the Gulf of Bothnia drained in to the Baltic Sea with fresh ice water, which eventually drained in to the North Sea producing clearer water.

But seaweed is not the only material which has increased on the beach. The amount of litter is also in abundance. Mr Wheatley said that the increase was not just due to fishermen being more careless by dropping bottles and wrappers on the beach. He said that rubbish being thrown from boats in to the North Sea was being washed up on to the resort's beach, but that there had been a sudden increase in litter because of a change in the direction of winds, which was blowing more litter on to the shore.