The Virtues of Seaweed

Have you been noticing the seaweed that’s washing up onto our shoreline?

Park maintenance staff will continue to remove litter and hazardous debris from our beaches and empty trash receptacles, but the seaweed is being left behind. The added cost of raking the seaweed from public beaches was eliminated during recent budget cuts.

Did you know that those clumps of seaweed have a name? It’s called beach wrack, and it’s “a pivotal part of the beach ecosystem,” says the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission [External Link].

Our beaches may have lost that manicured look, but there’s a sunny perspective. Consider the following benefits provided by natural beaches:

• Beach wrack helps to prevent beach erosion by stabilizing windblown sand in dune areas, and it helps increase the effectiveness of re-nourishment projects.
• Seaweed provides nutrients for dune plants, invertebrates and shore birds.
• Beach wrack creates an environmentally-friendly habitat for migrating shorebirds.
• Leaving seaweed on our beaches serves as an effective cost-saving measure.