Over 1,000 tonnes of algae were collected in the past few days from St George’s Bay, Ghadira Bay and St Thomas in Wied il-Ghajn , Parliamentary Secretary for Consumer Protection and Valletta 2018 Deo Debattista said.

He was speaking at Ghadira Bay, where he was announcing further clean-up initiatives. Around 800 tonnes of algae was cleaned from Ghadira Bay alone, Dr Debattista said.

All bays around Malta would be cleaned up by June 15, he added, noting that the initiative started later in the year after advice from the Environment Resources Authority.

Read: Sea grass should be left on the beach as long as possible: ERA

Speaking at the event, director for the government’s cleaning services Ramon Deguara said there was “a record number of algae washed up on Maltese shores this year".

He added that he did not know the specific reason for the increase in algae, but that it was most likely due to the sudden temperature rise across the globe.