Tons of seaweed littering the Island?s beaches may be cause for complaint for those who are not used to brown beaches but seaweed has an abundance of life is helpful in repairing the beaches after Hurricane Fabian.

There are over 60 different species of seaweed that reach our shores, thriving in the deep open sea that surrounds Bermuda, said Tony Knap the director of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.

The area of the ocean is called the Sargasso Sea named after the ?sargassum? or seaweed that drifts through the currents and tides that are bound by the Gulf Stream, the Canary current and the Caribbean current.

Dr. Knap said that the abundance of seaweed that has washed up on the beaches was no cause for alarm. Over the last three years, he said, the amount of seaweed on the beaches had begun to grow but said that for the last ten years there had not been quite as much as years before. ?The pattern of where the seaweed goes just depends on the currents and whether it will even turn up in Bermuda. It is one of these variable things that we just don?t know about,? Dr. Knap said.

Years ago, Dr. Knap said seaweed used to pile up in mounds on the Island?s beaches up to a metre high but now, some of the beaches are blanketed in brown seaweed that will be used to repair the damage after Hurricane Fabian.

Some of the dunes on the beaches were damaged and the Parks Department will be using the seaweed to help build those dunes back up, said Parks Officer Craig Burt.

?During this season we don?t tend to rake the beach as much and because of the erosion that occurred because of Hurricane Fabian it has been harder to get the tractors down on the beaches,? Mr. Burt said.

?There has been some raking but we?ve also been using the tractors to help clear up the Botanical Gardens,? he added.