The Matua Peninsula is a magnet for sea lettuce this summer providing most of the 950 tonnes of the green weed removed from Tauranga's harbour beaches since November.
'The tonnage that has been picked up, we have never been near it before,” says Tauranga City parks ranger Craig Fea.
Previous best efforts have been about 200 tonnes, says Craig.

'We are quite lucky a lot of things came together,” says Craig.
The city council and Environment BOP provided a $60,000 budget, enabling the importation of purpose built machinery. It all came together for the El Nino summer. Sea lettuce in Tauranga Harbour thrives in the prevailing El Nino westerly winds.

The sea lettuce was cleared from Matua beaches just before Christmas and just before New Year, says Craig.
An area of Beach Road Matua that was prompting a lot of complaints was found to have hydrogen bisulphide gas levels that were approaching health hazard levels, says Craig.
While they were not high enough to knock over a horse, as was reported in northern France in 2009, Craig says there could have been concerns for dogs or small children walking out in the rotting weed.
A third of the budget $20,000 is left to clear the weed for the rest of the summer says Craig. The next weed run is planned for late January or early February.