It’s On The Nose
It’s also very small, quite natural and makes a very big mess.
It’s Hincksia sordida a naturally occurring alga inhabits the sea and is in bloom at this time of year. Individually it is quite small but unfortunately it comes in very large groups and at the moment several tonnes of it is sitting just over the horizon of Noosa.
Last year when it was washed ashore on Main beach it cleared the beach and all the restaurants along the beach right at the peak of the holiday season. One Noosa resort suggested that its takings for January were down by $100,000 because of the problem and other businesses reported losses of up to 30 percent.
While you may think that our little friend Hincksia sordida is someone else’s problem it isn’t. Over the last couple of weeks there have been reports of the algae appearing on the beaches on the seaward side of Fraser Island as well as down at Rainbow Beach.
For Noosa the problem will get worse if there are strong breezes from the north before the bloom breaks up.
