Help to clear swimming pool weed

A wildlife trust has appealed for volunteers to help it remove seaweed from an outdoor swimming pool in Devon.

The Ladies Sea Pool at Tunnels beach in Ilfracombe has been "invaded" by wireweed, a non-native species of large brown seaweed.

Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) said left unchecked it could take over rock pools and threaten native seaweeds.

The pool has been emptied to allow volunteers to remove the wireweed with paint scrapers on Wednesday.

Once it is removed, the wireweed will be composted.

The DWT's Marine Awareness Officer said: "Invasive species are becoming more and more of a problem for Devon's wildlife and the situation is only going to get worse as climate change takes hold.

"We are looking for about a dozen people to help with the task to see if it is possible to keep in check the spread of this problematic species."

Also known as japsweed or Sargassum, wireweed was first recorded in the UK on the Isle of Wight in the early 1970s.

It has since spread along the south coast of England, into Wales and Ireland.

It is considered harmless in its native western Pacific, but in the UK it grows very rapidly in the summer and can reduce the diversity of native seaweeds by outgrowing and shading them.

The Victorian bathing pool is exposed for about three hours before and after low tide.

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