Joe Spiteri of Primbee with vegetation cleared from Lake Illawarra. Picture: DAVE TEASE
Joe Spiteri "can't knock" the permanent opening of Lake Illawarra.
However the Primbee resident says the consequences of the entrance opening are starting to hit home, especially in an area described as the lake's most productive.
"Primbee is supposed to be the breeding ground for fish and prawns, but the algae here now is so thick nothing can get through it," Mr Spiteri said.
A visitor to the lake for 40 years and a resident of Primbee for 16 years, Mr Spiteri said there had been similar problems with the algae before, but usually in times of drought.
"Ever since the permanent opening the lake has dropped ... it used to be a foot higher than the ocean," Mr Spiteri said.
"The last two years we have a had a lot of rainfall and it is still here.
"It is so thick it is like a net, nothing gets through it.
"When the tide comes up and covers the weeds, the prawns come over the top, but as the tide recedes the prawns are getting trapped ... the seagulls, pelicans and ducks are having a feast."
Mr Spiteri says that dredging along the western side of the lake is an option that needs to be pursued.
"They says this a breeding ground, but it can't be if there is no water - and they can't breed in this sort of crap. Dredging has to be done."
Lake Illawarra Authority Chairman Doug Prosser said there was no "silver bullet".
He said traditionally this time of year saw a build up of seagrass wrack on the western side of the lake as a result of the prevailing westerly winds over winter.
"We are doing work in the Primbee area right now, but we have to be careful when we clean we don't do more damage than we do good," Mr Prosser said.
"That is an area that Fisheries tells us is the most productive area for fish and prawns in the whole lake because of the sea grasses that grow there."
Mr Prosser said the problem with dredging is the cost of disposing of the material and finding somewhere to put it.
He said prior to construction of the new entrance, people were warned that the tidal effect would be much greater than before.
"We also warned it would have the effect of lowering the lake levels and that is exactly what has happened, a lot more of the foreshore shallows are exposed."
"It is not just in Primbee or Windang, people in Oak Flats are commenting on how the shallows are exposed more now and that is because we have intervened with mother nature by putting in the large entrance," Mr Prosser said.
