The Anguilla Government is exploring the possibility of removing and dispensing the large quantities of seaweed, now littering the island’s beaches, in such a way that the potential sea-side calamity can in fact benefit farmers.
Minister of Home Affairs, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, along with her Assistant, Mrs. Evalie Bradley, spoke about the matter at a town hall meeting at Sandy Hill on Sunday, August 30.
“What most people love about Anguilla, are the beaches,” Mrs. Richardson-Hodge told her listeners. “The seaweed on the beaches is a distraction to our tourists and us,” she stated. “When we go to the beaches, we can’t take our children and enjoy the beaches because we have this amount of seaweed between us and the sea water. And so it has to be dealt with.”
The Minister continued: “The region has been grappling with the seaweed problem and there has been a meeting of the different islands as to what can be done. We, in Anguilla, have identified a way to move forward. We have visited the beaches…to get an idea as to what the conditions of the beaches are, and backhoes will be there to clean them.
“Once the seaweed is collected – [care will be taken to avoid removing sand] – it will be taken to one location. We have preliminarily identified the Department of Agriculture which has seven acres of land [at the back]. We are still looking to see whether that is a feasible option.
“We had a meeting with a gentleman at the Department of Agriculture. He is conducting an experiment taking the seaweed, washing it to remove the salt, mixing it with chipped wood, having it decomposed and will then make it available to farmers. So we have actually found a use for the seaweed. It is now just a matter of finding the right mix and to ensure that plants can grow in it, and so it can be a benefit. That is what we are looking at.”
