Unidentified, hair-like seaweed covers Auckland beach

Monday, 20 May 2019

Orewa Beach on north Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast is covered with a strange kelp that resembles ginger hair.

An unfamiliar seaweed covering a large area of a popular walking beach has left beach-goers feeling disgusted.

The seaweed, which looked like shaggy clumps of ginger hair, covered Orewa Beach in north Auckland on Monday afternoon.

One beach-walker told Stuff the seaweed was 'incredibly slippery'.

A hair-like seaweed has covered a large area of Orewa Beach, north Auckland.

A local woman said she had walked the beach for 40 years and never seen anything like it.

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The seaweed has been described as slippery and resembling human hair.

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'I've been trying to figure out what it is all afternoon. I think it could be a kelp which comes from ships.'

NIWA marine biologist Dr Wendy Nelson was unable to determine the seaweed's species by looking at photos.

She said she was interested in obtaining a sample to find out what was 'causing this nuisance'.

It is not the first time Rodney residents have marvelled over strange things spat out by the sea.

In December 2017, a smack of blue bottle jelly fish, also known as the Portuguese man o' war or the 'floating terror', were spotted at Orewa, Red Beach and Stanmore Bay beaches, prompting Auckland Council to put an alert up on its Safeswim website.

Slightly further north, an 'enormous' lion's mane jellyfish washed up on Pakiri beach in September 2018.

The lion's mane, or Cyanea rosea, is the largest jellyfish species found in New Zealand.